John
01-06-2011, 07:13 PM
Police in South Korea have claimed Google collected emails and other personal information from unsecured wireless networks in the country while taking photographs for its Street View mapping service.
The American search engine giant announced in May that it had inadvertently collected emails, URLs and passwords from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, prompting investigations around the globe.
Jung Suk-hwa, the police officer in charge of the investigation in South Korea, said Google accessed private data as its cars took photos of streets in Seoul and three other major cities between October 2009 and May 2010.
He said police reached the preliminary conclusion after analysing hard disks obtained from Google and that officers suspect that the activities break the country's laws protecting privacy of telecommunications.
It was not immediately clear whether Google and its officials might face prosecution or some sort of penalty under South Korean laws.
Google Korea said in a statement: "We are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks. As soon as we realised what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities.
"We have been co-operating with the Korean Communications Commission and the police, and will continue to do so. Our ultimate objective remains to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities."
Google's Street View programme provides street-level images on Google Earth and Google Maps.
Source - Yahoo.
The American search engine giant announced in May that it had inadvertently collected emails, URLs and passwords from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, prompting investigations around the globe.
Jung Suk-hwa, the police officer in charge of the investigation in South Korea, said Google accessed private data as its cars took photos of streets in Seoul and three other major cities between October 2009 and May 2010.
He said police reached the preliminary conclusion after analysing hard disks obtained from Google and that officers suspect that the activities break the country's laws protecting privacy of telecommunications.
It was not immediately clear whether Google and its officials might face prosecution or some sort of penalty under South Korean laws.
Google Korea said in a statement: "We are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks. As soon as we realised what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities.
"We have been co-operating with the Korean Communications Commission and the police, and will continue to do so. Our ultimate objective remains to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities."
Google's Street View programme provides street-level images on Google Earth and Google Maps.
Source - Yahoo.