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Bangalore Police has asked Internet giant Google to stop taking images for its “Street View” project stating that it will compromise the security of the city.
“We can confirm that we received a letter from the Commissioner of Police regarding Street View. We are currently reviewing it and have stopped our ‘Street View' cars until we have a chance to answer any questions or concerns the police have,” a statement from Google said.
The Additional Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, Mr Suneel Kumar, told newspersons that Google had not taken permission from the city police before launching the service.
He said Bangalore has some key Defence establishments which are also on the hit list of terrorists. “We cannot allow Google to take pictures of these establishments and even multinationals and domestic IT companies which can be misused by terrorists,” he pointed out.
Mr Kumar said that sensitive locations apart, even photographs of public locations could be used by terrorists to plan attacks. As an example, he said that terrorists used details of the railway stations in Mumbai for the 2008 attacks.
A partner with law firm, Khaitan & Co, Mr Abhilekh Verma said the police, which takes care of law and order of a city, can issue directives keeping in mind the interests of security.
“Reasonable restrictions can be put based on public policy and public interest and one of the reasons can be security as long as it can be justified,” he pointed out.
In May, Google launched a fleet of cars and tricycles mounted with cameras to take pictures of streets in Bangalore for its Street View project, which was the first such initiative in the country for the Internet giant. Google has so far covered over 27 countries for its Street View project and its pictures are available on Google Maps for people to get easy access to any part of a particular city.
In certain countries like Australia, Google has ceased operations and is considering doing the same in the European Union, according to press reports.
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