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The Pros And Cons Of Google Mapathon By The Survey Of India

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NEW DELHI: On March 25 the Survey of India (SOI) lodged a police complaint against the USA Internet giant Google for allegedly publishing classified and sensitive data about military locations of India on the net. This is in violation of the National Map Policy (2005), which states “The responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country lies with the Survey of India.”

Google conducted a Mapathon competition between February 12, 2013 and March 25, 2013, which required citizens to submit detailed maps of their neighborhood including landmarks and shortcuts. This is likely to jeopardize the security system as it published sensitive information about the locations of military installments …show more content…

This precipitous claim made by Google is seen as a desperate and panicked attempt made to alleviate the situation. This ludicrous blunder will prove fatal for them.

However, there also exists a different perspective to this issue. The act of banning the Google Mapathon by the Survey of India (SOI) is against the very objective of the National Map Policy, which states “The organization (SOI) should promote the use of geospatial knowledge and intelligence through partnerships with all sections of the society.” This was what Google Mapathon was intrinsically doing. If the organization had concerns that it would have some terrorist ramifications, they could have worked with Google and expurgated the sensitive data. It was not Google’s intention of publicizing classified data. Looking at the affirmative side of the impact of the competition, it would provide detailed maps for all landmarks, short cuts and roads. This will turn out to be very utilitarian not only for the people living in that area, but also for tourists and travellers. However, Google has been sluggard in their response to this situation, which makes them look

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