Google stops Street View in Bangalore

Google has ordered a stop work order for the collection of images for its Street View service Bangalore, a southern Indian city, after receiving objections from police. According to the police in that part of the world, they had security concerns as Bangalore was a “highly sensitive” area. This isn’t the first time that authorities in a country had voiced out concerns over Google’s Street View, as other countries had also issued similar commands in the past.

According to a Google spokeswoman, “We received a letter from Bangalore’s commissioner of police and are reviewing it. We will not be collecting any more images for Street View until we speak to the police.”

Glad to see Google comply, but does that mean we will end up with a less than satisfactory Google Street View experience in that part of the world? Perhaps, but the police do have a moot point as Bangalore’s additional police commissioner, Sunil Kumar mentioned that Bangalore is home to key defence and scientific institutions including the Indian Space Research Organisation and Hindustan Aeronautics.