Wow! Just when you think you can't be surprised...

Google's offices in Seoul, South Korea were raided today. The South Korean police are investigating Google's subsidiary, AdMob, because according to a South Korean police officer, "We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission." Google has said they will cooperate fully with the investigation.

The source of this article also had this to say,
South Korean officials opened investigations of Google starting with the company's use of its "Street View" cars to collect private data. Last month, South Korean internet portals complained to anti-trust regulators that Google's position in the mobile search engine market was anti-competitive.
Apparently, AdMob's data location tracking is a technology that simply has a double-edged sword. The info gathered by AdMob is simply designed to assist Google in personalizing ads to smartphones based on location and personal preferences. Kim Kwang-jo, a computer science professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology had this to say, "Every technology has a flip side. Location-based services benefit customers by helping them find nearby restaurants, gas stations and other places with their smartphones. But it could potentially violate consumer privacy. There are loopholes in location-based services, and companies should get consent from customers to collect location data."

And the drama continues...

Source: PhoneArena and Reuters