The police have brought criminal charges against Google for allegedly collecting private information of Internet users in violation of a South Korean telecommunications law.

The cyber crime investigation unit at the National Police Agency said Thursday that Google illegally collected and stored e-mails and text messages of some 600-thousand Internet users in the process of making its Street View mapping service between October 2009 and May 2010.

Google is under investigation in 16 nations around the world for similar violations but South Korea is the first nation to pursue criminal charges against the California-based company.

The police raided Google Korea’s offices in August 2010 and analyzed hard disks, finding illegally obtained and stored personal data of WiFi users in Gyeonggi Province.