Google Map Controversy

As a continuation of the previous article on Google Glasses, here is an excerpt from an Open Magazine article on how absurd the Indian government and police’s claim of violation of national security is, in connection with Google’s Map Contest, Mapathon:

The police complaint against Google is all the more pointless because even when there is no contest, users can and do update Google Mapssimply because there is a utility to it. If your office or home is put up onGoogle Maps, then it makes it easy to direct anyone with a smartphone towards it. Technology doesn’t go backwards and Google is not the only one with satellites. More and more people will continue to use such services and add to it.

At the heart of this issue is also India’s fixation with labels like ‘security’ and ‘sensitive’ that let governments get away with anything.