Google Maps.
The Korean government announced on Nov. 13 that it has been confirmed that Google has fulfilled all the security conditions imposed when it conditionally permitted the export of domestic high-precision maps to Google.
On the morning of the day, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held the Consultative Body on Overseas Export of Basic Survey Results, composed of related ministries and private experts, to review the results of Google’s implementation of the security conditions. Previously, the government imposed security conditions in February of this year when it conditionally permitted Google’s overseas export of high-precision maps with a scale of 1 to 5,000. The main conditions include coordinate display, image security processing, data processing, and the establishment of response procedures for security incidents.
First, the consultative body confirmed that longitude and latitude coordinates of South Korean territory have been removed from global services such as Google Maps and Google Earth provided on the internet and mobile devices (Android and iOS), and that all conditions for restricting coordinate exposure have been met. Google developed a dedicated control layer applicable only to South Korean territory to meet the security conditions. This is a method that blocks the distribution of the application (app) if coordinate exposure is detected during an app update.
In addition, it was found that Google signed a contract on Aug. 31 of this year to receive images that have been security-processed by the National Geographic Information Institute through a domestic partner company in order to fulfill the ‘image security processing’ condition. Google must replace the images of its existing map service immediately upon receiving the images in question, and the images must be loaded as they are without modification.
Currently, Google applies security processing only to facilities it has identified internally while using overseas private satellite imagery. It was determined that Google has deleted all Street View images of the interiors of military and security facilities and roads within 50m of the facility boundaries, and has applied the same security processing to past time-series images of Google Earth. Later, if the current images and past time-series images are replaced with images that have undergone security processing domestically, some facilities that have not yet been security-processed will also be obscured.
Furthermore, Google designated the president of Google Korea as the domestic map officer and will establish a 24-hour response system so that a dedicated team can promptly process the government’s requests. The plan is that if the South Korean government discovers a security incident that violates domestic laws and standards, such as the exposure of security facilities in images, and requests a response, the domestic map officer will immediately report it to the response team at Google headquarters and complete the necessary measures within 1 business day from the time of receipt.
Google, which received conditional permission to export domestic high-precision maps, is obligated to comply with domestic laws and regulations related to spatial information. If violated, the government can take measures in accordance with domestic laws, such as corrective orders. The government plans to initiate high-intensity sanctions, such as suspending or revoking the permission, if a serious failure to fulfill the conditions occurs in the future.
Previously, Google had requested the South Korean government to export high-precision maps with a scale of 1 to 5,000 overseas multiple times since 2007. The government had refused the export citing reasons such as national security and the impact on the domestic spatial information industry, but conditionally permitted it in February of this year.
