Google conducted a ‘Mapathon’ in the year 2013 in India, which attracted several participants from all over the country. It was a huge project, offering prizes to the participants to contribute for improving Google maps by filling in the gaps present in certain parts of Indian locations. At that time the CBI of India asked Google not to collect the details of the locations military installations. The ‘Mapathon’ project emphasized on businesses and other points which were of interests to the users instead of military locations. But apparently it happened that many participants provided the information, which should have been censored anyways.
According to the Indian Government, ‘Google is polluting the Internet with classified material, it will be put under fire and have to face heavy penalties for it’.
The official Government’s Survey of India (SoI) has an authority to approve all the mapping data and public maps. The agency said that Google never consulted them before starting up the ‘Mapathon’. CBI is now investigating the entire case to know the exactly what has happened.
However the query “Military locations” on the ‘Mapathon’ shows several locations. It does not become clear that these locations are known bases or classified locations. Investigation of the case has indicated that there might be criminal penalties on Google and where will be its fallout after the investigation is concluded. Once if the military installations have been disclosed, they cannot be made secret again. This is not the first time such case has happened when Google Maps have revealed or indirectly published the locations of Military bases of Israel, Australia and the US.