Bangalore police halts Google Street View Cars

Bangalore, Jun 22: The Bangalore police asked internet search engine giant Google to halt its Street View cars from capturing the images of streets in Bangalore over security concerns.

City Commissioner of Police ordered Google to stop the Street View cars and trikes with high resolution cameras mounted on top roaming the city collecting 360-degree images of roads and public locations for its free Street View service. According to police officials, Google have no clearance from the Home and Defence ministries to collect the pictures of strategic buildings and public places.

Google confirmed that they had received a letter from the police department asking them to stop the service. Officials added that they are in talks with various department to sought out the issue.

"We can confirm that we received a letter from the Commissioner of Police regarding Street View. We are currently reviewing it and have stopped our cars until we have a chance to answer any questions or concerns the police have," Google spokesperson said.

India is not the first country raising security issues over the Street View cars. Earlier, countries like France, Switzerland and Britain fought with the California-based company after reports of collecting personal information through personal Wi-fi networks.

In May 2011, Google started collecting photographs of public locations around Bangalore for Google Street View service, which allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighborhood through panoramic street-level images.

OneIndia News