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South Korea’s telecom regulator has announced that it is to launch a probe into Apple to determine whether the world’s largest handest vendor’s (by revenue) collection of location data from iPhone and iPad devices violates privacy rules. The Korea Communications Commission joins theU.S. Federal Communications Commissionin beginning an investigation into Apple’s location policies, sending a list of inquiries to Apple Korea asking it to clarify why location data is collected from Apple device owners in the country....

Google’s Seoul office was raided by the South Korean police under suspicions that the Internet search firm’s mobile advertising unit, AdMob, had illegally collected data without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission. According toReuters, the probe comes as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a broad investigation into Google and reportedly alerting high-tech firms to gather data ahead of a probe into Google’s dominance of the Internet search industry....

South Korea has been recognised as having the most advanced Internet and telecoms economy, according toMeasuring the Information Society 2011, a reportpublished by the ITU(International Telecommunication Union), the UN agency for information and communications technologies. The Asian giant held the top spot in last year’s report and is described as being a “leader in ICT diffusion and uptake for many years”. The country’s high mobile broadband penetration (which tops the global chart at 91%), “very high” fixed mobile broadband penetration (36....

South Korea is to develop a new open-source mobile operating system for smartphones that will help device makers in the country fend off competition from their global rivals such as Apple, government officials toldYonhap Newson Monday. Kim Jae-hong, a deputy minister from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said that Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, with a portfolio of 17,000 patents, would be able to protect Korea-based smartphone giant Samsung from legal threats but it would also ensure that the search giant would become one of the largest competitors for South Korean smartphone vendors in the near future....

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) aims to curb influential bloggers who get compensation from companies in return for favorable reviews of products. The fair trade watchdog recently amended regulations so that companies and bloggers, as well as Facebook and Twitter users, must reveal whether payments or gifts are exchanged in return for good reviews. Noncompliance could result in fines. FTC director Kim Jeong-Kee told theAFP: “This measure is aimed at curbing ‘power bloggers’ who deceive consumers by concealing their links with companies and write favorable product reviews and organise group purchases....