The Street View project of global search engine Google would be a security threat to Indian cities, especially Bengaluru, which is on the terror radar, the Karnataka unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Monday.
"We have conveyed to the Google India officials that security considerations and the recent (July 13) terror attack in Mumbai make its Street View project vulnerable to misuse of its data and poses security threat to cities like Bengaluru, which is on the terror radar," state BJP media spokesman S. Prakash said.
Google India's senior official Venkatraman Hariharan and its legal head Geethanjali met BJP lawmaker C.N. Ashwath Narayan and Prakash to explain the objectives of its Street View project, which films the thoroughfares and landmarks in a city and posts them on Google Maps to empower people with information and data for making early decisions.
It is of course risky but I think before executing any deadly attack in an area, they first go through every nook and corner in order to find out the ways through which they can escape.They use the terrorists who are well acquainted with that place.
Arise Awake and Rest Not till the Goal is Achieved.
Security depends on secrecy of information. In a democracy, people need to get information. That is why RTI act came in force. Now RTI is more important than officials secrets Act.
We need to balance the need for security with right to information. Democracy implies flow of information freely. But this is inconsistent with security needs. Hence, it is necessary to earmark places and information that are of strategic importance. Google or any other body may not be allowed to collect information from these regions.
G. K. Ajmani Tax consultant http://gkajmani-mystraythoughts.blogspot.com/
