In India, if you any company or person want to share or create mapping data then it would be big trouble. Because, Govt. has issued a propos...
In India, if you any company or person want to share or create mapping data then it would be big trouble. Because, Govt. has issued a proposal to control this mapping data. And this proposal bill is called The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill.
This Bill is open to feedback and testing process until June 4 so we can say that it is currently only a draft. This bill will make illegal to publish map-related information or even share location data if you don't have a license from a government Examining agency. If any company or individuals found violating this rules will face a fine of at least Rs. 10 million going up to Rs. 1 billion along with imprisonment for maximum seven years.
As per the Government official whose interview was conducted by The Economic Times, the bill was proposed as a way to restrict in Google after the company failed to hide military locations. The Govt. officials said, “Terrorists attacks on sensitive targets after studying Google Maps,” referring to the attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station in the northern state of Punjab, which took the lives of seven security guards and one civilian in January 2016.
The main problem with this proposal bill is that, by requiring a license for creating geospatial data, spanner will be put in the works of every app which have location data facilities in India like Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Uber, restaurant directory Zomato, Grofers, etc. and even tools to map areas hit by natural disasters and point out relief centers.
As per the current draft, not only just app developers that will require a license but also every end user of these apps who does things like shares their location with a friend, posts a status update, or uploads a photo with meta-data, is effectively creating mapping information and will have to get licence too.
(This article is written from The Next Web. The all information and other things provided here are the assets of The Next Web. To read original next web article click here.)
As per the proposal bill, the Security Examining Agency will concern itself only with information relating to sensitive areas like military bases. But this will be a very poor thought out plan in case of police mapping apps.
According to Govt. it's might stop terrorist attacks little bit. This rules in the bill only apply within India and to Indians outside the country, it won’t restrict foreign military forces and terrorists beyond India’s borders from sourcing map data from other places then India.
The main and important thing about this draft is that this was published only days after India finished setting up its own satellite-based navigation system, NAVIC.
See Also:
PSLV-C33/IRNSS-1G - The seventh satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)
A group of anxious citizens about this bill have started a campaign to educate people about the issues and problems with the bill and request them to write to the Ministry of Home Affairs with their thoughts of problem occurs. Hopefully it’ll gain enough support to prevent this intolerant bill from becoming law in India.
COMMENTS