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Google's Mapping Contest Draws Ire From Indian Government
hypnosec writes with news that India's Central Bureau of Investigation has ordered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Google for violating Indian laws by mapping sensitive areas and defence installations in the country. As per the PE, registered on the basis of a complaint made by the Surveyor General of India's office to the Union Home Ministry, Google has been accused of organizing a mapping competition dubbed 'Mapathon' in February-March 2013 without taking prior permission from Survey of India, country's official mapping agency. The mapping competition required citizens to map their neighbourhoods, especially details related to hospitals and restaurants. The Survey of India (SoI), alarmed by the event, asked the company to share its event details. While going through the details the watchdog found that there were several coordinates having details of sensitive defence installations which are out of the public domain."
"You didn't get a permit from us about writing a map, so we will ask you to share the map with us."
Someone didn't get his bribe!
Doesn't the Indian government have better things to do? Oh like feeding their hundred of millions of impoverished citizens or even building toilets so they don't shit outside everywhere. Or even solve the massive corruption they have.
No wonder India is such a shithole of a country.
Piss off India and your labor supply will come to an end!
"The company[Google], noting that it was not aware of any privacy issues, ..."
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
You can't really censor that from the internet, now can you?
out of the public domain
If you can see it from public property and tell what it is, it's (effectively) in the public domain, isn't it?
If it's supposed to be secret, and someone who shouldn't know where it is does, you've got a security leak.
I'd say Google's doing them a favour. If any of their secret installations turn up on it, you know it's time to shut them down or move them.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Exactly. If it was crowdsourced, then by definition, it is in the public domain. It's public domain information they want to cover up. Not 'information not in the public domain'.
It's not like US with the satellite have seen WMD's in Iraq, or are they seeing WMD's which never exist?
If you can see it from public property and tell what it is, it's (effectively) in the public domain, isn't it?
Not necessarily. This isn't the United States. Different laws and customs applied differently. Your normal expectations regarding the law may not apply.
I'd say Google's doing them a favour. If any of their secret installations turn up on it, you know it's time to shut them down or move them.
Yeah... I'm sure that's exactly how they will see it too... [/sarcasm]
They can... And I think they should... Put a big red polygon there with the label "Indian Government Declared Sensitive Area" right on top.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Have you never heard of the Streisand Effect?
In C++, your friends can see your privates.
"Defence" is a British spelling of "defense". Perfectly acceptable.
In C++, your friends can see your privates.
When I lived in the UK, there was a big blank space on the official maps just outside town. Anyone who lived near there knew it was the local nuclear weapons dump, and any Soviet spy who drove past would see the buildings that mysteriously didn't appear on the map, and know it must be something important enough to hide, and therefore important enough to bomb in wartime.
The whole thing was just stupid.
Have you never heard of the Streisand Effect?
The Streisand Effect works only if you know and care about Barbara Streisand --- and only in a time and place where Geek Rules override every other consideration.
The geek has a one-size-fits-all cultural mindset that has never served him particularly well.
Also the border is disputed with Pakistan and China. Since Pakistan has been the "ally" of USA since 1950s, and India kept dallying with USSR all those days, almost all the American magazines will carry maps that show disputed parts of Kashmir as part of Pakistan. I have seen so many Reader's Digest, Time, National Geographic, Life mags with maps of Kashmir region stamped with, "This map does not agree with the official map published by the Surveyor General of India. No significance may be attached to the differences published here. " (quoting from memory, actual wording could be even more bureaucratese ).
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Not starting a flamewar. Both Google Maps and OSM have their place. But if I was an Indian, I would donate my time to OpenStreetMap so that everyone can profit from the data instead of just one American company.
It could also have something to do with the fact that normally foreigners are not allowed in cantonments and other restricted areas and so the use of locals opens both sides up to problems.
My visa specifically mentions which cities I can live in (so I must register with the FRRO in either of those cities; as far as I know, I don't think I can just up and move from say Delhi or Mumbai to somewhere else without getting some additional permitting or a replacement visa first) but it also says "not valid for prohibited / restricted and cantonment areas" meaning I can't even visit those places without getting permission first (which could be a pain in the ass if someone were to actually check my documents as I move around, because sometimes the only way to get from A to B is through such an area).
So apart from the replies concerning bribery (probably a factor), the government may simply be annoyed that Google is recruiting Indians to do stuff for a foreign entity which involves "areas of interest", which is fair enough I suppose - if said foreign entity were a government, wouldn't that basically amount to spying?
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)