The South Korean government has determined that Google has complied with the security conditions imposed during the approval of its export of high-precision maps. However, the government plans to continuously monitor compliance during the actual data export and service application processes.
On November 13, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a meeting with relevant government departments and private experts to review the security measures implemented for Google’s export of maps at a scale of 1:5,000.
Google applied for the export of high-precision maps in February of last year, and the government granted approval in February of this year under conditions that included restrictions on coordinate display, security processing of military facility images, domestic processing of map data, and the establishment of a security incident response system. Google submitted a final report detailing the related measures on November 4.
The committee confirmed that measures to restrict the exposure of latitude and longitude coordinates of domestic territory on Google Maps and Google Earth have been completed. Google has established a separate control system to prevent the distribution of updates if coordinate exposure is detected during the service update process.
Images of military and security facilities will be replaced with data processed securely within South Korea. Google signed a contract in August to receive security-processed images from the National Geographic Information Institute through a domestic partner company. Currently, Google is temporarily obscuring military facilities it has identified and has also removed Street View images within 50 meters of roads adjacent to these facilities.
Map data will be managed in a way that allows Google to use materials processed on domestic servers by its local partners without altering the terrain features. The export will be limited to base maps, road networks, road names, lane counts, and speed limits. To respond to security incidents, Google Korea's president has been designated as the domestic map liaison, and a system has been established to respond to government requests 24/7.
The government plans to monitor the process of image replacement and map data export, and if any serious violations of security conditions occur, it will suspend or revoke the export approval. Additionally, the government intends to support Google in solidifying cooperative and investment strategies with domestic spatial information companies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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