Google admits hacking Mocality data

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-mocality-database

Google has confessed that a number of people working for it "improperly" accessed the customer database of a rival company in Kenya to boost its own business.

The US search giant said it was "mortified" to learn that staff illicitly entered the business directory of a Kenyan listings firm, called Mocality, in an attempt to sell a competing product to the rival's customers.

The allegations were first made public in a blogpost on Friday by the chief executive of Mocality, Stefan Magdalinski, who accused Google of "telling untruths" and a "human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent ... attempt to undermine our business".

Magdalinski claimed to have unearthed the alleged malpractice almost immediately after Google launched a rival initiative in the country, dubbed "Getting Kenyan Businesses Online".