Google Inc. will remove geographic coordinates of South Korea’s security locations and blur sensitive sites on its maps and Google Earth to address concerns raised by South Korean government, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
Cris Turner, vice president of knowledge & information products, government affairs and public policy at Google, said in a press conference that the global tech company will comply with South Korean government’s request to obscure security installations in satellite imagery on Google Maps.
The move is aimed at preventing both domestic and foreign users from accessing to precise location data.
Under South Korean law, foreign users are barred from accessing high-resolution maps with a scale finer than 1:25,000 due to military and national security concerns.
In 2011 and 2016, South Korea denied Google’s requests to access detailed maps of security installations, including military bases, citing concerns over the potential leakage of sensitive geographic data.
In February, Google again asked the South Korean government for access to high-resolution mapping data. To respond to the request, Seoul planned to form a consultative body on Nov. 11.
Turner clarified that the map that Google has requested was produced by South Korea’s National Geographic Information Institute at a scale of 1:5,000, excluding sensitive military and security locations.
Google Maps’ satellite images are sourced from commercial providers, not from government agencies, he added.
If needed, Google will consider purchasing satellite images that have already obscured security locations from domestic partners.
Turner noted that the online search platform will deepen cooperation with the South Korean government and the country’s global positioning system (GPS) service providers such as TMAP Mobility.
By Hae-Ryeong Kang
Hr.kang@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.
