Korean police raid Google offices over location tracking
On the heels of a recent controversy involving the alleged tracking of sensitive user location data on Apple's iPhone and Google Android, the South Korean police raided Google's Seoul offices Tuesday on suspicions that the company had collected personal data without consent.
Reuters reports that South Korean police have initiated a probe into Google's AdMob advertising arm, resulting in Tuesday's police visit to the company's offices.
"We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission," a South Korean police official said.
A Google spokesman confirmed that the police visit to the company's offices had indeed occurred and promised the company's cooperation with the investigation.
As it has grown, Google has faced increased scrutiny over its privacy policies, including several privacy investigations in South Korea and the U.S. After evidenced surfaced suggesting that Google had collected private data with its fleet of "Street View" cars, investigations were opened. Last month, South Korea's top Internet portals lodged a complaint with anti-trust regulators alleging unfair competition from Google in the mobile Internet search market, according to the report.
Late last month, the Mountain View, Calif., search giant, along with Apple, was called to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing on May 10.
Several weeks ago, security researchers claimed that Apple had been storing an unencrypted log of user's locations. South Korean officials promptly indicated that they were investigating the alleged practice.
Apple broke its silence last week with a statement reassuring users that it was not tracking the location of iPhones. Instead, Apple identified the log in question as a "crowd-sourced database" of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers meant to help the iPhone more rapidly and accurately calculate its location.
The iPhone's "crowd-sourced database" | Source: O'Reilly Radar
According to Apple, iOS bugs resulted in data being stored longer than necessary and updates to the database even when Location Services are disabled. A fix to the bug is expected in an upcoming release of iOS 4.3.3, which will reportedly come in the next two weeks.
In a rare interview, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs acknowledged that more could be done to inform consumers about new technology and declined to comment on Google's privacy policy.
"As new technology comes into the society, there is a period of adjustment and education," Jobs said. "We haven't, as an industry, done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the past week."
Reuters reports that South Korean police have initiated a probe into Google's AdMob advertising arm, resulting in Tuesday's police visit to the company's offices.
"We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission," a South Korean police official said.
A Google spokesman confirmed that the police visit to the company's offices had indeed occurred and promised the company's cooperation with the investigation.
As it has grown, Google has faced increased scrutiny over its privacy policies, including several privacy investigations in South Korea and the U.S. After evidenced surfaced suggesting that Google had collected private data with its fleet of "Street View" cars, investigations were opened. Last month, South Korea's top Internet portals lodged a complaint with anti-trust regulators alleging unfair competition from Google in the mobile Internet search market, according to the report.
Late last month, the Mountain View, Calif., search giant, along with Apple, was called to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing on May 10.
Several weeks ago, security researchers claimed that Apple had been storing an unencrypted log of user's locations. South Korean officials promptly indicated that they were investigating the alleged practice.
Apple broke its silence last week with a statement reassuring users that it was not tracking the location of iPhones. Instead, Apple identified the log in question as a "crowd-sourced database" of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers meant to help the iPhone more rapidly and accurately calculate its location.
The iPhone's "crowd-sourced database" | Source: O'Reilly Radar
According to Apple, iOS bugs resulted in data being stored longer than necessary and updates to the database even when Location Services are disabled. A fix to the bug is expected in an upcoming release of iOS 4.3.3, which will reportedly come in the next two weeks.
In a rare interview, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs acknowledged that more could be done to inform consumers about new technology and declined to comment on Google's privacy policy.
"As new technology comes into the society, there is a period of adjustment and education," Jobs said. "We haven't, as an industry, done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the past week."
Comments
I just hope Apple make it a personal choice in the 'fix' that's coming.
They did. You can turn it off, or you can allow 7 days of data to be collected.
It'll be interesting to see if Google handles this as well as Apple did.
South Korean police raided Google's Seoul offices Tuesday
A Google spokesman confirmed that the police visit to the company's offices had indeed occurred
So what the heck was it? A raid (i.e. a warrant was issued and the police seized computers/documents etc related to the warrant) or a visit (i.e. the police attended the Google HQ to ask questions).
So what the heck was it? A raid (i.e. a warrant was issued and the police seized computers/documents etc related to the warrant) or a visit (i.e. the police attended the Google HQ to ask questions).
Your questions in the only thing that makes sense on this thread
http://english.kbs.co.kr/News/News/N...id=Dm&No=81300
Apple can weather these things, Google can't. Apple doesn't rely on location, advertising - like Google does. If Google loses it's ability to snoop. it loses it's ability to make money.
Yep!
Couldn't agree with you more. Jobs talks about education with new technology, it'd be interesting to see how people would react, in this day-n-age of 'internet privacy', if people were educated on how Google does business with their 'data'.
Korean sources speak about raid.
http://english.kbs.co.kr/News/News/N...id=Dm&No=81300
Uh! That sounds a bit more serious than asking a few questions.
Good on apple to have reacted on this matter as quickly as they did.
I have to admit, however, that companies like Google and Apple have done a poor job in educating the public about what location services are and how they work. The public apparently doesn't understand how their smartphone is able to provide information about restaurants and businesses nearby, and targeted ads for area companies.I guess they think it's magic or something. What was that quote from Arthur C. Clark? "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."
Taking your meds?
So what the heck was it? A raid (i.e. a warrant was issued and the police seized computers/documents etc related to the warrant) or a visit (i.e. the police attended the Google HQ to ask questions).
If a source other than the AI or Google describes it as a raid, it's probably fair to say it was a raid.
I have quickly lost respect for google in terms of their wanon disregard for the privacy of not only their customers but the public in general. As an example, it is currently impossible to cancel a google voice number once it has been established. It may be "disabled" but not canceled. A subscriber is forever linked to google this way as it is required that you provide your real number when signing up for the service. This may not seem like a big deal but I promise you that it is and a clear violation of personal rights. This article simply provides mounting evidence that google has no intentions of changing the path which they have begun.
I've switched my search services to Bing on all my computers.
When Microsoft starts looking like the good guys, you know it's bad.
Taking your meds?
Do you take everything at face value? Wise up.
They did. You can turn it off, or you can allow 7 days of data to be collected.
It'll be interesting to see if Google handles this as well as Apple did.
You say 'They did', is this is a beta you have seen or did I miss the update already? Well that's good news. I assume the default OFF and you can 'turn it on' rather than they way you worded it?
I'm not quite as sure Google's reasons for data collection are as innocent as Apple's but then I am biased.
As it has grown, Google has faced increased scrutiny over its privacy policies,
If Google's main revenue source is advertising, how much privacy can one expect when it's the company's goal to "learn" all they can about you, your habits, where you visit on the web, where you visit in person, etc., so they can put it to use with, what else, advertisements.
It may be crappy! It may be annoying! It may be an invasion of privacy! But should it be a surprise?
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