Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Google Street View halts in India

21 June 2011 Last updated at 09:50 GMT Bangalore street Google launched Street View in Bangalore last month Google has stopped collecting images for its Street View service in the southern Indian city of Bangalore after objections from police.

Police in Bangalore said they had security concerns and that Bangalore was a "highly sensitive" area.

Google launched its project to collect high definition images to give Google users 360 degree views of streets only last month in Bangalore.

Google data collection has caused concern in numerous countries.

Cameras mounted on cars and tricycles had been taking pictures in streets across Bangalore.

"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," a Google spokeswoman told AFP.

Police told the BBC that they had expressed concern about the project and said they asked Google to seek clearance from India's ministry of home and external affairs.

Bangalore's additional police commissioner, Sunil Kumar, said that Bangalore, home to key defence and scientific institutions such as Indian Space Research Organisation and Hindustan Aeronautics, was high on the list of terror targets.

In 2008 a series of bombs exploded around the city, killing one woman and injuring several others.

But Google India's Product Head Vinay Goel told India's CNN-IBN news channel that they were "only driving on public roads and taking publicly available imagery."

Last year almost 250,000 Germans told Google to blur pictures of their homes on the Street View service and the Czech government also banned Google from taking any new photos for the service.

In the UK Google has also agreed to delete private emails and passwords mistakenly picked up from wireless networks by its Street View cars.


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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

PayPal sues Google over mobiles

27 May 2011 Last updated at 10:55 GMT Smartphone that runs Google's Android operating system Google has yet to respond to PayPal's allegations Google is being sued by PayPal, which claims that the internet search giant stole its technology for turning smartphones into digital wallets.

PayPal alleges that Google obtained trade secrets from Osama Bedier, a former PayPal executive who is now Google's vice president of payments.

The lawsuit came hours after Google unveiled its plans to allow people to pay for shopping with their mobiles.

Google said it had not yet seen the complaint.

"We have not yet received a copy of the complaint and won't be able to comment until we've had a chance to review it," a Google spokesperson said.

Google intends to launch its mobile wallet technology in the US in the summer.

It plans to offer the service on mobile phones that use its Android operating system.

Payment processor PayPal, which is owned by online auction site eBay, also claims in its lawsuit that Mr Bedier was in job talks with Google at the same time as he was leading negotiations to make PayPal a payment option on Android.

The technology that allows mobile phone users to pay with their handsets in shops is called near field communications or NFC.

It is already used in Japan, and is predicted to become popular around the world.

PayPal says it spent three years trying to secure a deal under which it would create an NFC system for Android, only for Google to end the talks.

In its court filing, PayPal said: "By hiring Bedier, with his trade secret knowledge of PayPal's plans and understanding of Google's weaknesses as viewed by the industry leader, Google bought the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of its own problems available."

"Google put Bedier in charge of its mobile payment business, virtually ensuring that Bedier would misappropriate PayPal's trade secrets concerning planning and competitive assessments in mobile payment."

Mr Bedier was hired by Google in January of this year.


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