
Google Street View banned in India due to security concerns - eplanit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/06/10/google-street-view-banned-in-india-due-to-security-concerns/
======
FreedomToCreate
The real reason for this ban is corrupt politicians who are embarrassed by the
terrible infrastructure and condition of their communities, who rather than
acting to fix the issues, take bribes and eat away at the money allocated to
facilitate growth in their communities. This is a common problem in India.
Just this week a movie depicting the huge drug problem in the state of Punjab
was banned and requested by the censor board to change the name of the
locations in the movie so that it doesn't target the state directly. Complete
BS by politicians trying to cover their own asses.

~~~
DarkLinkXXXX
Which movie is that? I'd like to see it now.

~~~
chetanahuja
Udta Punjab (Literal trans: Flying Punjab or somewhat less literally, High
Punjab)

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biswaroop
It's quite ridiculous. In 1997, my parents brought a telescope to India. The
Indian customs claimed my parents would "spy on Indian satellites" and never
released it. As a young astronomy fan, this made me particularly sad.

In 2013, I went backpacking with a GPS in the himalayas. I was stopped by a
park ranger who searched my bag, and claimed that a GPS can be used for
'terrorism'. He took away my ID (but luckily not my GPS), and I could only
pick it up when I left the park 3 days later.

Later on the trip, I witnessed incredible amounts of pollution generated by
the armed forces in the border regions. Not to mention the consistent human
rights violations perpetrated by the Indian Army in Kashmir, all in support of
"security".

I don't want to go on a long political rant against the Indian defense system,
but I really wish my childhood telescope wasn't stolen.

~~~
ethbro
_> I don't want to go on a long political rant against the Indian defense
system, but I really wish my childhood telescope wasn't stolen._

That may be the saddest, most humble thing I've ever read on the internet.
Apologies for all the missed years of stargazing to your younger self.

~~~
biswaroop
> all the missed years of stargazing

Thanks! I stargazed nevertheless with a pair of binoculars. It's tough (but
sadly possible) to prevent people from doing things they really want.

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wrong_variable
If all it takes is google street view to penetrate your security
infrastructure then its not the fault of a bunch of images.

Google Street View would provide tremendous value to the average person in
India - just like it has in so many other countries - the govt again rather be
lazy then invest. Shame.

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ameen
"security concerns".

India has been learning from how developed countries deal with pushing down an
unpopular piece of legislation.

Street view would decimate long held views about India. Posh localities would
have slums nestled in a couple of streets as they form the workforce (drivers,
maids, street vendors, etc) of those localities.

Not to mention display their corruption for the entire world to see.
Sanctioned repairs are sometimes covered up and potholes covered with sand and
water(!). Or how public land is discreetly and illegally converted into a lot
to be sold off to the highest bidder or a relative of some minister.

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suprgeek
As usual a Stupid and Kneejerk reaction - BAN IT. No efforts at balancing
security concerns with convenience for regular citizens. If you think this is
strange try to photograph a few Court Houses or colonial era ministry building
in New Delhi - see how quickly the cops get on your case.

"Satanic Verses" hurts religious sentiments - BAN IT (never mind the freedom
of expression debate).

Couple of Files on very popular file sharing sites violate copyrights - SHUT
IT DOWN (never mind the convenience).

Plastic Bags causing pollution - BAN IT (never mind the convenience or the
fact that no one enforces it).

Alcohol Addiction is a problem in some states - BAN IT (never mind that the so
called "dry states" of India have some of the highest alcohol consumption
rates).

and so on....

So in India BAN IT is a very popular Judicial/Legislative response.

~~~
shivsta
Paper bag laws are enforced where I am, at least the store cashiers always
make sure to charge you $0.10 for each one that you get. Don't think we have
the option for plastic at all. What do you propose is a better solution for
plastic bag pollution?

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shriphani
The Indian gov's approach to leadership derives from the aphorism that
leadership and decision making manifest as inconvenience. If you're not being
inconvenient, you're not doing your job.

Look at the legions of people in charge who have the exact same world-view as
a prep-school headmaster - dealing with all issues by administering the cane
first and only then applying thought.

~~~
eklavya
Hahahahahaha, I wish it wasn't but it's so true. It's not the politicians
though,it's the beaurocracy. They want to be as much trouble as they can.

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bazzargh
The article contains conflicting reports, one official says Streetview is
banned, another says it isn't, but should really have concentrated more on the
bigger problem: the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill. That's so vaguely
worded it bans _any_ geotagged photographs going on line without a 3 month
license application process and fees. It has the potential to stop all online
mapping efforts in India.

More details here [http://savethemap.in/](http://savethemap.in/)

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nirav72
They probably didn't want the world to see people openly defecating on the
streets.

~~~
vthallam
Google was planning on to get major cities and tourist attractions on street
view and open defecation doesn't happen there. How about not commenting dumb
things here?

Edit: To add, Indian govt is working to get all villages in India better
santization facilities.

~~~
nirav72
I'm Indian and know very well that open defecation is still common in the
major cities. Stop putting a spin on it and admit it that we have a problem.

~~~
pavanky
Where the hell are you going to openly defecate in major cities with all the
traffic?

~~~
sumedh
Near the train tracks, there are usually couple of tracks which are not used
by trains.

There are many areas in Mumbai where traffic is less specially in the early
morning. So you can do it on the road.

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tn13
Indian Laws are bonkers and any government servants and pervasive powers.

Here is my favorite Indian Law.

Right to Education Law (Indeed who does not want Education and Baby Pandas as
rights ?)

Features:

1\. The law is applicable only to Hindu run schools. Aided or Unaided. The law
has blanket exemption to any school run by a Christian or Muslim. (Aided or
Unaided).

2\. All private schools even those who do not take a penny from government
must keep 25% of their seats reserved to the "needy".

Needy is defined by government and the list is defined by government. This is
often a function of caste and bribes offered to government to get your kid's
name on the right list.

3\. Government will decide all the admission criteria as and when it pleases
for these private schools. So if you want to start a school that will cater
only to say "IQ > 140" that is illegal Or a school that would focus on
children with great artistic ability that is illegal.

4\. All private schools must meet various criteria such as "X area per child"
else they will have to shut down.

5\. It is a criminal offense to run a school that is not approved by this law.

Coming up with a dark and horrible regulation would only reduce school supply.
Secondly, applying it only to "Hindu" run schools is like handicapping a the
majority community in one particular sector. All this when Indian's private
education was expanding rapidly, performing better than government's free
education and was actually targeting more and more poor people than ever.

~~~
i_have_to_speak
Here's the full text [1] of the law. See if you can find the word "Hindu" in
it anywhere.

Also, the other 4 points you mention are also factually incorrect.

[1]
[http://eoc.du.ac.in/RTE%20-%20notified.pdf](http://eoc.du.ac.in/RTE%20-%20notified.pdf)

~~~
tn13
No. The word used is Minority/Non-Minority. Minority definition is derived
from another body "National Council for Minority Education" which by
definition can not have a Hindu on its board.

All points are completely accurate as since I am involved in some of the court
cases.

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Adverblessly
In Israel "sensitive installations" don't have Street View around them. For
example, try searching for "Mahane Rabin (HaKirya)" and you'll see that the
surrounding roads do no have Street View enabled. To me, that is sufficient
evidence that "security concerns" are not the real reason for the ban.

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tn13
Indian bureaucrats have lot of power and everything is banned by default in
India. In past I was harassed by police for trying to film buildings from
public roads.

In my home district the collector (Colonial era post of a county administrator
who also has quasi-judicial powers) has banned the Drones. Reason? Well
government does not like it. You cant do much here.

The problem is not of the government but of people who all grease up and bend
over every-time government asks them to bend over. The "ban" mentality is
unimaginably pervasive.

India's Prime Minister created this portal [http://mygov.in](http://mygov.in)
where people can give suggestions to the central (federal) government. Last
time I did a study around 80% of them were about either banning something or
using coercive power of government to benefit some special interest group.

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known
Sometimes a divided country is better than a hopeless one;

1 billion Upper caste/Backward caste/Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe
Communities in India HATE each other for the past ~2000 years;

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_politics)

They should live in separate countries;

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-
map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/)

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vr3690
A blanket ban to protect a few defense installations seems like an
overreaction. They do mention that monitoring it after launch would be
impossible, but mistakes can discouraged by imposing large fines or something
similar to that.

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gldev
That's not cool, even here in México we have that, but then again politcians
in méxico are so fucking retarded that they may not even know what google
street view is.

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jacquesm
At least in Germany they got the reason right.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
Which one is that? Because Austria also has no Street View and the reasons for
it are ridiculous.

~~~
jacquesm
As far as I understand it Google thought it was too much trouble to comply
with the 'remove my house from streetview' requests that came in and were
found to be legal and so they killed streetview in protest. I guess they
figured that the rest of the Germans would make a fuss if they pulled out but
that didn't happen.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1fzygw/why_is_there...](https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1fzygw/why_is_there_no_street_view_in_germany/)

Privacy is an _excellent_ reason why things like streetview should be opt-in
rather than opt-out but even opt-out was too much work for Google.

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vthallam
I feel the govt should figure out a way to allow Google to get the cities on
street view. Tens of incidents happened which costed thousands of lives and so
understand the apprehension of the security authorities. But they just have to
come up with better measures to ensure safety of the citizens.

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chdir
This thread seems like a release valve for all the pent-up anger against the
government & its policies. On the bright side, we are all on the same page.
Any ideas on how we can channel this into something constructive to take a
step towards fixing the system ?

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dingo_bat
In India, if the law specifically does not allow a particular activity, it may
as well be banned. This is completely opposite to the sane behavior which
would be that citizens are free to do anything but specifically forbidden
things.

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contingencies
We don't have it here in China either, but we have a homegrown domestic
equivalent. Let's hope India builds one of their own! The world is better off
with heterogeneity.

~~~
afsina
Competition is good. But banning the better player is not the way. That would
be just feeding crony companies and forcing bad products to consumers with the
mask of security.

~~~
vkou
If the history of industrialized nations is anything to look up, protectionism
is a pretty fantastic way to jump-start a capital-intensive industry.

Now, once you _have_ a world-class industry, complaining about foreign
protectionism is also a pretty fantastic way of preventing other countries
from developing theirs.

This is an article from '92, but it's quite relevant today.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/12/how-
the-...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/12/how-the-world-
works/305854/?single_page=true)

~~~
afsina
Google become what it is because of protectionism? Protectionism slows down
everything and gives pain to the consumers. You are better off without it.

~~~
vkou
No, it was a first mover, with what was in hindsight an obvious innovation.

When you're a second mover, though, protectionism is absolutely necessary.
Observe American heavy industry during the 19th century, the two Japanese
economic miracles, any of the Asian Tiger economies, German auto firms...

If your goal is to grow a domestic industry against powerful established
players, you should absolutely not optimize what is good for consumers.

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thenewregiment
Indian bureaucracy and politicians are nothing but first class suckers. They
loot away anything and everything.

