Somewhat older news. Apologies in case it was posted already.
www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/05/us-google-india-maps-idUSBRE93409O20130405
I doubt there's anything remotely innocent in this by Google.
Google's methods are very instructive (TSP take note):
If a government says No to mapping sensitive areas of the land (e.g. those that are of high security risk if exposed), then Google - "innocent" old Google - will start up a competition dangling free plastic/electronic goodies in front of 3rd worlders* stupid enough to leak national security data for their personal interests (and I suppose there's also the never ending supply of converts ready to do the bidding of anyone who asks, as long as it's guaranteed to put the heathen nation at risk).
And tablets and dumphones? Oh yeah. *Great* prizes
arcasm: Who knew treason came so cheap? Then again, when other Indians will sell the native religion - and even the Vedam - to aliens for money (or else for free/for a following/for the recognition/for a hobby), what's a few smallfry traitors in the comparison, right? Nothing really, so Google can't be blamed for trying I guess. And it's not like they *made* people fall for it. Many Indians nowadays are admittedly so easy. So very easy. India's number of desperate wannabe-progressive 3rd worlders* - seen conversing in some scary attempt at English every chance they get, and growing quite illiterate in anything local in direct proportionality (who can blame the aliens for laughing at them) - keeps increasing.
*The label - as repugnant as it is - actually fits. They've actually turned *into* the caricature. That must be a first... <- Surely there must be a prize for that too? What no tablets and dumphones for this greater feat of self-transformation/mass regression? But I guess no one admires Losers. (They just cheer at your downfall.)
Oh and just as a contrast to India's Lemmings: in Germany it's the *population* that's even more unbending than their own already-demanding government when it comes to matters of privacy and security, and so the Germany citizenry regularly tell Google's - and more recently also Microsoft's - mapping "services" to get lost, and will take them to court over such matters, all so as to ensure that at least their neighbourhood and ideally their nation too is not compromised. (Actually, people might want to look at how up to date Google's maps of Germany are. Because when I last tried - some years back, admittedly - the neighbourhood I wanted to check up on wasn't even on there, all because the local council or was it govenment didn't want it. Now I'm wondering if any parts of the rest of Germany were on there at that time... Because it would be very German to boycott the entire thing. Not to forget that much of Germany got bombed to pieces at the end of WWII. <- Maybe the memory is still so fresh they're not all that ready to tell the Americans exactly how the land lies now in the 2010s...- or whoever else maybe be waiting to take a potshot, say the jihad?) One of the many reasons why Germany's still in the "1st world" clique: because they behave like citizens of the first world. Which is: working in their population's own interest, which then ends up serving their personal interests. (A.o.t. the rollover citizens/wannabes of the 3rd world, who unwittingly serve the interests of foreign nations by blindly chasing after Plastic for themselves.)
www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/05/us-google-india-maps-idUSBRE93409O20130405
Quote:Indian police investigating Google mapping contest
A security personnel answers a call at the reception counter of the Google office in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad February 6, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Krishnendu Halder
By Devidutta Tripathy
NEW DELHI | Fri Apr 5, 2013 7:14am EDT
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Police in India are investigating to determine whether U.S. Internet company Google Inc violated rules in a competition that asked users to add information about their local areas for its online map services after a government agency raised security concerns.
[color="#0000FF"]Google, which ran the "Mapathon" in India in February and March[/color], said its aim was to make more local information accessible to all and that it did not break any laws.
Police are acting on [color="#0000FF"]a complaint filed by Survey of India, the country's national survey and mapping agency[/color], which said the contest was illegal and may threaten national security.
"One complaint has been received and we are forwarding it to the cybercell for further action," said Chhaya Sharma, a deputy commissioner of police in New Delhi.
Google officials said the company had not yet received an official communication from the police.
Google invited users to help "create better maps for India" by adding knowledge of their neighborhoods and promised the top 1,000 mappers prizes of tablets, smartphones and gift vouchers.
[color="#0000FF"]Survey of India first wrote to Google saying its "Mapathon" was against rules and then filed a police complaint[/color], R.C. Padhi, a top official at the agency, told Reuters.
"We have to ensure that security is not compromised at any cost," Padhi said, adding that some information uploaded on Google Maps could be "sensitive".
Google is open to discussing specific concerns over the issue with public authorities in India, Paroma Roy Chowdhury, a company spokeswoman in India said in a statement.
[color="#800080"](Ooh, would ya look at that? A stooge. Hope Paroma's paycheck for playing high-placed muppet is worth it.
Mapping sensitive spots in India is like mapping the sensitive spots in Israel. India is a major target of christoislamic terrorists. If anything on the illegaly mapped areas blow up, people are morally at liberty to start breaking down Paroma's door. Oh and those of the Mapathon's entrants too - so it's imperative that the Mapathon collects the contact details of the everybody involved. After all, it's all Fun And Games until someone else loses an eye. Or their life, as is more often the case in India.)[/color]
"Google takes security and national regulations very seriously, and the Mapathon adhered to applicable laws," Roy Chowdhury said.
[color="#800080"](All I heard was blablabla. I'm just going to have to fast-forward to the Gawd Save The Queen bit, because that should mark the end of the excuses and PR. I hope)[/color]
LATEST IN SERIES OF DISPUTES
The investigation is the latest in a series of disputes between various governments and Google over privacy and security issues involving its popular mapping products.
In March, Google agreed to pay $7 million in the United States to settle an investigation into an incident in which its Street View mapping cars allegedly collected passwords and other personal data from home wireless networks between 2008 and 2010.
In 2011, city police in the southern Indian technology hub of Bangalore ordered Google to suspend a Street View service over security concerns, three weeks after the company started collecting images from the city.
Tarun Vijay, a lawmaker from India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, last month complained to the government over the "Mapathon" contest.
"Will we allow any Indian organization to invite people for mapping their localities and have entire data stored in USA? Special to Google?," Vijay wrote on the Twitter social networking site on March 20.
"If there is a law, it has to be followed. I have asked whether Google followed the law," Vjay told Reuters on Friday, after meeting India's defense and interior ministers over the issue. "I have taken up that they should be acting urgently."
Separately, Google and other social media companies are also fighting a criminal case brought by an Indian journalist related to allegedly "offensive" content on their web sites.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by John Chalmers and Matt Driskill)
I doubt there's anything remotely innocent in this by Google.
Google's methods are very instructive (TSP take note):
If a government says No to mapping sensitive areas of the land (e.g. those that are of high security risk if exposed), then Google - "innocent" old Google - will start up a competition dangling free plastic/electronic goodies in front of 3rd worlders* stupid enough to leak national security data for their personal interests (and I suppose there's also the never ending supply of converts ready to do the bidding of anyone who asks, as long as it's guaranteed to put the heathen nation at risk).
And tablets and dumphones? Oh yeah. *Great* prizes
arcasm: Who knew treason came so cheap? Then again, when other Indians will sell the native religion - and even the Vedam - to aliens for money (or else for free/for a following/for the recognition/for a hobby), what's a few smallfry traitors in the comparison, right? Nothing really, so Google can't be blamed for trying I guess. And it's not like they *made* people fall for it. Many Indians nowadays are admittedly so easy. So very easy. India's number of desperate wannabe-progressive 3rd worlders* - seen conversing in some scary attempt at English every chance they get, and growing quite illiterate in anything local in direct proportionality (who can blame the aliens for laughing at them) - keeps increasing. *The label - as repugnant as it is - actually fits. They've actually turned *into* the caricature. That must be a first... <- Surely there must be a prize for that too? What no tablets and dumphones for this greater feat of self-transformation/mass regression? But I guess no one admires Losers. (They just cheer at your downfall.)
Oh and just as a contrast to India's Lemmings: in Germany it's the *population* that's even more unbending than their own already-demanding government when it comes to matters of privacy and security, and so the Germany citizenry regularly tell Google's - and more recently also Microsoft's - mapping "services" to get lost, and will take them to court over such matters, all so as to ensure that at least their neighbourhood and ideally their nation too is not compromised. (Actually, people might want to look at how up to date Google's maps of Germany are. Because when I last tried - some years back, admittedly - the neighbourhood I wanted to check up on wasn't even on there, all because the local council or was it govenment didn't want it. Now I'm wondering if any parts of the rest of Germany were on there at that time... Because it would be very German to boycott the entire thing. Not to forget that much of Germany got bombed to pieces at the end of WWII. <- Maybe the memory is still so fresh they're not all that ready to tell the Americans exactly how the land lies now in the 2010s...- or whoever else maybe be waiting to take a potshot, say the jihad?) One of the many reasons why Germany's still in the "1st world" clique: because they behave like citizens of the first world. Which is: working in their population's own interest, which then ends up serving their personal interests. (A.o.t. the rollover citizens/wannabes of the 3rd world, who unwittingly serve the interests of foreign nations by blindly chasing after Plastic for themselves.)