Street View: Google and Karnataka Govt. Discuss Future

It can be recalled that a while back, we had reported that one of Google’s immensely popular services, Street View faced a complete ban in the city of Bangalore, India. Citing security concerns, as one of the key issues that came in the way of Google’s Street View getting a go-ahead, the government added that the recent terror attacks in Mumbai had only made matters worse for Google.

Getting the Street View

According to a report in The Economic Times, a recent meet between the legal team from Google, that included Google's legal expert, Geetanjali Duggal and Venkatesh Hariharan, Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs, in Bangalore and BJP’s media spokesperson, S. Prakash, as well as, the party’s lawmaker C.N. Ashwath Narayan, it was discussed that Street View was heavily violating security norms. However, Google’s representatives made attempts to convince the leaders that the Street View services would only display historical monuments and shopping complexes. Post the vicious attack on the nation’s financial capital; all metros including Bangalore were put on a high alert. In such a scenario giving out even the tiniest of details, let alone complete ‘Street View’ would be grave, the leaders added.

The BJP government in Karnataka has asked Google to approach the Centre for further orders. According to BJP’s media spokesperson, S. Prakash, the Data Protection Act 2000 needed amendments keeping in mind technological advancements that have taken place, since its inception. Both parties are now looking at a third way, that of data protection. Although clashing on most grounds, both Google and the Karnataka government agreed that the entire mechanism needed serious monitoring.

Google’s authorities now cite further discussions with local authorities as their next logical step. For the rest of us, it’s now a wait and watch game.