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South Korea delays again to take any decision concerning Google’s request to access topography data.
The officials from South Korea decided to postpone any decision on allowing Google to access the latest map data of their country. The delay might be good news for the IT company.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the date of the final ruling would be on the 23rd of November.
In the meantime, Google will have more discussions with the Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology, the National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Land from South Korea.
The director of the North Korean Land Ministry said that the talks revolve around the possible impact on the national security. The danger comes from having data stored in foreign countries. Therefore, the authorities decided to take more time in figuring out all the details of the data sharing.
Google faces a second delay in obtaining a decision, as the first deadline was already set for 22nd of June. Then, just like it happened now, the talks did not end up to any conclusion.
The request of the IT company is to obtain more data on the topography of the country and to store it on servers outside Korea.
The South Korean government had previously raised barriers to IT companies from the US when it came to sharing map data.
The information is used in apps and games that seem very simple but use location services, such as Pokemon Go. However, the same data is used by large businesses in automated vehicles and the Internet of Things.
The refusal is explained by the fact that South Korea is at war with North Korea. Offering information to be publicly shared with the world can compromise national security, and may even disclose data on classified military facilities.
The maps used by local IT companies have the images of the Blue House erased. Google Maps also shows blurry pictures of the location.
The law of spatial data management says that a map for surveys is not allowed to be carried out of the country. Google tried to gain permission for a long time, but he was still delayed. The company wants to store the data in multiple centers around the world where it could process it.
The discussions started in 2007, and since then Google fights on the premise that the regulation discriminates foreign companies.
In 2010, the request was not approved, but the government offered a compromise. Google was offered the option to open a center in South Korea, but the US company refused.
Google stores data on a cloud platform and the information is stored in multiple data centers all over the globe.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Rebecca McGhee
Rebecca McGhee is a valuable contributor for several publications and online platforms. Having graduates with a degree in Computer Science, her interest lies mostly in this area. Yet, she finds any tech-related topic or scientific topic is a challenge worth meeting. She enjoys turning her own research projects in worthy contributions that reach the large public. And mostly, she is grateful for all the feedback she receives from readers, as she believes it aids her in permanently improving her style of writing, beyond the scientific style she is accustomed to.
