Police in South Korea Raid Google’s Office - NYTimes.com

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Police in South Korea Raid Google’s Office - NYTimes.com

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean police raided the offices of Google Korea on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the company had illegally collected and stored personal wireless data.

The search company is already facing lawsuits and investigations in several countries in connection with private wireless data collected for its Street View service. Street View, which was started in 2006, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and take virtual walks through cities.

From late last year until May, Google Korea dispatched cars topped with cameras to cruise around the country to photograph neighborhoods before the planned introduction of Street View.

The police suspect that those cars might have illegally captured and stored personal data from wireless networks while they were mapping streets, a statement by the Cyber Terror Response Center of the Korean National Police Agency said.

“We will investigate Google Korea officials and scrutinize the data we confiscated today” to see whether the company violated the country’s laws on communications and privacy, it said.

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It is interesting that the police in South Korea can enter  priviate property, with out a sworn warrant alleging facts show indicate that a crime was committed and that the owner of the private property committed the crime.  This is what is called the "Probable Cause" standard in the United States.  A police "hunch" or guess that a crime was committed is not sufficient to obtain a judges signature for a search warrant.  

This type of search would violate the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which requires a search warrant, signed by a judge and based upon probable cause.

John H. Armwood