Google mapping contest poses risk to national security: Govt

“We have received a complaint from the Survey of India and it has been forwarded to the Economic Offences Wing for further action,” DCP (South) Chhaya Sharma said.

The case is the latest in a series of disputes between various governments and Google over privacy and security issues involving its popular mapping products. Earlier in March,Google had agreed to pay $ 7 million in the United States to settle an investigation into an incident in which its Street View service allegedly collected passwords and personal data from wireless networks between 2008 and 2010. In 2011,the Bangalore police had ordered Google to suspend a Street View service over security concerns,just three weeks after the company started collecting images from the city.

Additional Surveyor General Major General R C Padhi told Newsline that Google had not responded to a letter sent by the office of the Surveyor General of India on March 21. “The government had earlier asked them to stop this. There is a lot of sensitive information [on Google Maps that is not supposed to be there,” Padhi said.

Google pointed out that “in the terms of services for Google Map Maker,it is mentioned that individuals will be solely responsible for submission and the consequences of posting or publishing the contents”.

Google held the Mapathon between February 12 and March 25. A Google spokesperson said: “Relevant Indian authorities,including the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Surveyor General of India have been briefed on Map Maker,which complies with all applicable laws. We take security and national regulations very seriously,and we’re open to discussing specific concerns with authorities.”

However,in its formal complaint filed at the RK Puram police station on March 25,the Survey of India has said the Mapathon 2013 activity is likely to jeopardise national security interest and that it “violates the National Map Policy”.

According to the 2005 National Map Policy,2005,“The responsibility for producing,maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country,which is the foundation of all spatial data,vests with the Survey of India.”

In his complaint on behalf of the government,Padhi wrote: “Survey of India is the only authority mandated to undertake ‘restricted’ category surveying and mapping. No one else is authorised to do so. Ministry of Defence has identified and prepared a list of civil and military vital areas (VA) in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs,which is regularly updated. [From a national security point of view,VA cannot be shown in data published in the public domain.”