Here’s a follow-up up on last week’s report: South Korean police have now filed criminal charges against Google over the collection of personal information via unsecured wifi networks. The data was collected by Street View vehicles in South Korea between October 2009 and May 2010.

According to the AP story, police examined the data that Google collected and determined that it broke two South Korean laws.

South Korean police concluded after months of analysis of hard disks obtained from Google that the company’s activities broke South Korean laws protecting privacy of telecommunications and protecting information about locations, said Jung Suk-Hwa, a police officer in charge of the investigation.

If South Korean prosecutors elect to press the case, Google could face fines totaling a little more than the equivalent of $70,000 USD.

As the issue has been investigated by many countries, Google has repeatedly said the data collection was an accident. A Google spokesperson also tells the AP, “we believe Google Inc. and its employee did nothing illegal in Korea.”

For more background, see our Google Maps Privacy: The Street View & Wifi Scorecard.

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Street View

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