South Korean police on Tuesday raided the office of Google Korea in Seoul on suspicion that the internet search company illegally collected location data of smartphone users.

A policeman carries a box containing confiscated goods at Google Inc's office in Seoul May 3, 2011. [Photo: Xinhua/Reuters]

Investigators from the cyber crime unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) were dispatched to Google's Seoul office early in the morning and confiscated hard drives and other computer data related to its mobile advertising agency, AdMob, local media reported.

"The raid on Google Korea was carried out to confirm the allegation that Google's AdMob platform was used to collect data on individuals' locations via smartphone applications," an SMPA official was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.

On the same day, SMPA investigators also raided the headquarters of local portal Daum Communications in central Seoul over similar suspicions.

The latest probes came amid growing worries about smartphone privacy breaches. South Korea's telecom regulator launched an inquiry into Apple last week to decide whether the U.S. tech giant's collection of location data from its iPhone and iPad users violates privacy rules.