14 DAY TRIAL // Google is the best search engine on the Internet but sometimes it is not as useful as it seems to be. Take the example of Korea, where the search technology reveals more than public information, numerous residents confirming that their registration numbers were searchable on Google. It seems like the authorities already requested the company to remove the information and, even if the search giant agreed to cooperate with the government, it's very difficult to identify and remove all the details. The registration numbers contain 13 digits and display information about the birth date, gender and registration region.
"Local portal sites like Naver and Daum automatically filter resident registration numbers but Google can't do so. So we plan to comb through Google's Korean-language search sites every other month this year to find out resident numbers open to the public. In this climate, the best way to prevent resident number-related identity theft is to pinpoint their whereabouts and require Google to delete them," said Oh Jin-ho, director at the ministry, according to Asia Pacific Media Network.
This is not the first time when authorities demand Google to remove private information displayed by the company's products. Google Earth is a downloadable application that attracted numerous complaints for the detailed imagery it provides, allowing users to view sensitive photos of certain locations that must be protected from the public eye. There were several removal requests, Google trying to replace the images with older ones or blur them to limit their details.
YouTube is another affected product that caused one of the biggest Google headaches after Viacom demanded the company to remove almost 100.000 clips because it didn't pay for the content it published. Although there are several removal requests, Google always seems to be a cooperative company, trying to give its best to provide useful information.