Indian government following Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam’s concerns over possible misuse of the company’s free mapping programme by terrorists, it was reported.
Responding to Kalam’s concern last week, Google spokeswoman, Debbie Frost had said the company took governmental concerns about Google Earth and Google Maps very seriously.
Kalam is worried about the satellite imagery provided by Google Earth which was launched in June this year. Last week, Kalam warned that terrorists could obtain high-resolution photos of potential targets from the Internet site.
Google has offered talks with the Indian government, but the Defense Ministry, the nodal agency coordinating the evaluation of satellite imagery with the Science and Technology Ministry and various security agencies will respond to this offer ‘as and when it thinks fit’, the Times of India reported.
India’s science and technology secretary, VS Ramamurthy told the paper: The job entrusted to us is to evaluate in coordination with others the damage potential of these high-resolution pictures. We are not concerned with Google’s reaction. He added that the challenge posed by the images is without precedent.
The map search facility on the ubiquitous Internet search engine has also incurred China’s wrath, other reports said.
The deletion of words, ‘Taiwan, a province of the People’s Republic of China’ from a map of Taiwan prompted the Chinese consulate in the San Francisco to voice an objection to Google’s decision, the IANS news agency reported.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, though Taipei claims the island is a separate country.