Google and Daum cleared of illegal data collection:
On Friday, Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office reached the decision not to pursue claims that Daum (Korean internet search specialist) and Google, actively collected illegal data of smartphone users.
Yonhap News reports that the legal challenge did uncover that Google and Daum were collecting location data, but this was only the position of the user and not any further details about them.
This comes as news from the US shows that Carrier IQ could be reporting information back to companies who want to learn about a smartphone or device users specific actions including messaging and keystrokes.
Admob was the accused platform:
It was thought that Admob was the platform that could have been reporting user data back to Google. Earlier in the year the offices of Google were raided by Seoul police in order to secure hard drives and learn more about how the Admob platform was being used.
GPS coordinates OK but not personal information:
One prosecutor admitted that it would be tough to use a smartphones IP address as people moved around suggesting that it was OK to obtain location data through GPS but nothing more than this.
Deeper murky waters:
In news related to the relationship between Daum and Google, it has become apparent that Daum was also separately cleared of capturing data this Friday, after law enforcers also raided their offices in May.
Google also have other pressing issues with the Korean law agencies, as they are accused of blocking and banning search rivals from including third-party applications on Android handsets.
Anthony Munns