Google's South Korean Office Raided Over Privacy Concerns (GOOG, AAPL)

Google Inc's office in Seoul, South Korea GOOG was raided on Tuesday by South Korean police investigating whether or not the American internet search giant is illegally collecting information about consumers' locations. South Korean Police suspect that Google's AdMob mobile advertising platform is collecting information about user locations without user consent and are concerned about what Google may be doing with the data. The investigation by South Korean authorities is just the latest incident to raise concerns about how several companies are using technology to track their customers' whereabouts and what they may be doing with the data. Just last month Apple Inc. AAPL came under fire when it was discovered that the company's popular iPhones and iPads have been recording user location data. Apple said that a "bug" caused its products to store location data for a year and that an upcoming version of its software would correct the problem. While it's not entirely clear what Apple Inc intended to do with the data, the case of navigation system maker TomTom is an example of how even anonymized user location data can be used in a way that consumers might not be happy about. Just last week it was revealed that TomTom was selling the data that it collected from its customers and to the Dutch police who used the information to place speed cameras in optimum positions. Google itself previously raised privacy concerns in the United States, Germany, South Korea and many other countries over the methods it used to collect data with its Street View cars for its online Street View mapping service. Selling private consumer data to law enforcement agencies is just one of the many possible scenarios that have consumer privacy advocates alarmed but it remains to be seen just what else companies may already be doing with our location data.