ROK Government Rejects Google Requests to Using Mapping Data
I wonder how much this has to do with protectionism for ROK companies that provide mapping services?:
South Korea decided Friday not to allow Google Inc. to take government-supplied map data outside the country, citing possible security breaches.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which supervises mapping policy, announced the decision after a meeting with officials from the foreign, defense and other-related ministries.
“There are security concerns amid the confrontation between the South and the North,” the ministry said. “(The ministry) suggested Google come up with supplementary measures to relieve security concerns, but Google did not accept this.”
The Seoul government had said it might allow Google to use the government-supplied map data if it deleted or blurred sensitive and military facilities, including the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
Why doesn’t Google just do what the K-government wants it to do? Namely,
“delete or blurred sensitive and military facilities, including the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae”
Surely doing this doesn’t really make much difference to Google services?
Still, I notice Google map works fine in Korea.
Because Google has the right to disagree with the RoK’s policy of zealous censorship.
Security/sensitivity is the government’s “for the children!” argument and gets all too often abused. Despite past whatever’s between Google and China for some reason they’re taking a stance on this and I can’t say I see it as wrong. The RoK is way too big brotherly.
Regarding GI’s suspicion that this has to do with protectionism while the RoK’s been guilty of that many times in the past, I believe this has more to do with the RoK’s lust to censor information available to the public.
If it weren’t for the Dperks and the Reds in Beijing, you might have a point about the ROK. Technically, there’s still a war on…
OTOH, Google kowtows to Beijing on every request… So they’re at best suspect…
“Google map works fine in Korea.”
Two things …
1. You can’t use Google Maps to get driving directions (turning your smart phone into a navigation device) because that function isn’t allowed in Korea.
2. The difference in resolution between Naver Maps and Google Maps when you zoom in is like night and day.
I like listening to Korea’s flagship English radio station TBS-e FM (101.3 in Seoul). They have some really good guest commentators. They interviewed a Korean professor the other day about Google Maps and the host asked if protectionism had anything to do with why the Korean gov’t won’t allow Google to have the map data. This professor just laughed (like it was a stupid question) and said, “Of course it’s all about protectionism. What other possible reason do they have?” He went on to lay out all several specific points that back up his statement about protectionism.
If it’s protectionism, then how come they allow Apple IOS Map? Shouldn’t it be reasonable to think that to protect a market, they need to shut out all foreign competition?
The Korean government allows any company to provide map services – the part they protect is access to map data at a resolution better than 1:50,000 – and that goes for Apple IOS Maps as well.
guitard, the Bing map service has just as good a resolution as Naver map. If they’re really being protectionist, they’re not really being consistent.
From the original article: “The Seoul government had said it might allow Google to use the government-supplied map data if it deleted or blurred sensitive and military facilities.”
Zoom in on Yongsan Garrison in Bing Maps. Do you see the White House? Embassy Housing? The PX? Umm … no. You see a big patch of green trees. Bing buckled under and acquiesced to the Korean government’s demands – and thus were given access to the higher resolution maps.
“Bing buckled under and acquiesced to the Korean government’s demands – and thus were given access to the higher resolution maps.”
So it wasn’t about protectionism then? If it was, no matter what Bing did, they would not have been given access. Bing complied with the Korean government demands to blot out few sensitive areas, and now they are free to service Korea. Why can’t Google just do the same? It’s not too much demand if some buildings are missing so who cares?
The bottom line is that the Korean gov’t doesn’t want Google to gain any traction in Korea as a search engine – so that Naver can remain the number one search engine. In other words, the Korean gov’t is PROTECTING Naver. One of the ways it does that is not allowing Google to use servers housed in South Korea – Google has to use servers housed outside the country. And because Korea bans the export of the high resolution map data, Google is forced to use low resolution map data that is insufficient for providing driving directions. But Naver is treated differently – it gets to use the domestically housed map data. Even China doesn’t play this game. For that matter, you can get driving directions in North Korea using Google Maps – but not in South Korea.
Google can do the exact same thing as Bing and Naver. Google cannot be given a special privilege over other companies who must all comply with same government rules. We can debate if this rule is reasonable or not. But there’s no question the same rule applies to all.
No. Google can’t do the same as Naver because no matter what Google does, it is not allowed to maintain its own servers in Korea – and that makes a huge difference. Naver is being protected by the Korean government.
How does Bing and Apple do it then?
Google is your friend.