Reclusive man arrested for collecting data of 8.84 m people using Google

A 37-year-old man, who apparently displays signs of acute social withdrawal, has been arrested for allegedly collecting personal data of 8.84 million people using Google's search engine and leaking some of the information, police said Tuesday.

The man, who is only identified by his surname Kim, allegedly didn't hack any Web sites to retrieve the personal information, including names, resident registration numbers and addresses, which are all available on sites routinely indexed by Google's search engine. He amassed the data between February 2010 and July 2012.

Kim was able to collect the personal data by accessing Web sites of Internet communities, job search portals, music labels and talent agencies found via Google, police officers said.

No motive was given for the Internet crime and Kim, who graduated from college ten years ago, appears to have lived in an extreme degree of isolation and confinement, according to the police.

During an interrogation by police, Kim reiterated that he collected the personal data because of "curiosity, without a special purpose," a police officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Police said they also found thousands of pornographic files on Kim's computer hard disks.

In 2009, Kim was arrested for stealing personal information from Web sites of government agencies and TV home-shopping companies. (Yonhap News)