Company denies illegal activity

Police said they have charged global Internet giant Google Inc. Thursday for their online location tracking service over allegations it violated Internet privacy laws here.

According to the Cyber Terror Response Center, the National Police Agency’s Internet crime unit, the conglomerate’s “Street View” mapping service gathered private information from unencrypted wireless networks during the filming process, violating three communication laws here.

Of the 16 countries currently investigating Google’s Street View, South Korea is the first to charge the headquarters, officials said.

Google is suspected of traveling some 50,000 kilometers through the country using cars attached with special video-recording, information-collecting devices, not only taping streets and landscapes, but also gathering private information through unprotected Wi-Fi networks

Police confirmed the mapping service had obtained e-mails, instant messages, internet site ID’s, passwords, credit card information and other personal information of some 600,000 people in Seoul, Incheon, Busan and other parts of the country.

In an official statement, Google said it has “done nothing illegal” in Korea.

Police said they found the private information Google collected during a raid last August.

“We succeeded in breaking the encryption behind the hard drives, and confirmed that it contained personal e-mails and text messages of people using the Wi-Fi networks,” said an official.

Police have investigated about 10 company officials, all of whom have claimed that they were simply following orders from headquarters.

Authorities here ceased to investigate the programmer behind the program.

The images of cities in Korea were collected from October of 2009 till May, 2010, after Google acknowledged that it had “accidentally” picked up private information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, in more than 30 different countries, while filming streets with its fleet of camera-equipped cars.

“As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities,” said Google. “We have been cooperating with the Korean Communications Commission and the police, and will continue to do so.”

According to police, they found Google Inc. to be in violation of the law on information and communication, protection and use of location information, and the communications privacy act.

Authorities suspect that the stolen information could still be saved on servers at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, and will request that the information be deleted.

Google has drawn fire all over the world, with dozens of U.S. states also demanding information gathered from the mapping service to determine whether it comprised of any illegality. Google headquarters in the U.S. refused to hand over the information gathered through the program.

Last November, Google started deleting the data obtained in the U.K.

Korea’s Internet portals, Daum and Naver, also have similar tools that allow users to see panoramic street-level views.

According to a spokesman at Daum, their Road View vehicles do not contain the same Wi-Fi device as Google’s vehicles.

This is not the first time Google’s mapping program has come under scrutiny for breaching laws on private data.

Critics claim that the tool invites unwanted attention from thieves, firms and other possible abuses.

Google’s Street View tool is available in the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries but was halted before it could launch in Korea.

By Robert Lee (rjmlee@heraldcorp.com)