South Korean authorities raided Google's Seoul office today, seeking any user data obtained illegally through its Street View project, which has caused the search giant quite a bit of legal friction. Along with Korea's pursuit, 37 US states and the Federal Trade Commission are investigating Google's Street View service – not to mention a variety of probes overseas and class action lawsuits.
In May, the company revealed that its Street View vehicles "accidentally" collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in several countries. A French investigation determined that compromised data included emails, fragments of visited websites, and even passwords, while the UK's data protection authorities have concluded that "no meaningful personal information" was collected.
Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are all looking into the case as well, but Google believes it hasn't violated any laws as it claims the data was gathered without its knowledge. The company blames a chunk of rogue code designed by a single engineer. Despite the turmoil, Google has received permission to launch Street View in Ireland, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden.