Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Indian police halt Google Street View

Google put its Street View camera cars to work in Bangalore last month, but Indian authorities have ordered the photographing to stop, saying the online giant did not obtain needed security clearance, BBC News reported today.

A senior police officer in Bangalore said they want Google to receive permission from state and central governments for filming the streets, because the city “has been on the radar of terrorists and anti-national elements as a high target area,” The Times of India reported.

Currently, Google offers its Maps and Art Project in India. It has not yet been able to offer Transit and Street View because the company is still building its infrastructure in the country and because of the “appalling state of internet and policies in India,” Javed Anwer wrote in the ToI article.

“In most areas of India, internet connection is too poor to take advantage of services like Transit. This is quite well known. But this week, we are seeing that even the policy part is quite shoddy,” he stated.

However, Google isn't running into problems only in India. In 2010, the Czech government banned the company from taking any photos for Street View, and in Germany, 250,000 people told Google to blur images of their homes, BBC News pointed out.

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