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Apple, Google asked to check mapping planes
TT Correspondent |  |  20 Jun 2012

Apple Inc and Goggle Inc who unveiled new 3D mapping services this month  through 'military-grade spy planes' have been warned by the US oficials over privacy issues, reportsReuters.

           

It said staffers for Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, met with Google executives on Monday to discuss privacy issues related to the camera equipped planes. They plan to meet with Apple on Friday. The senator's office also plans to reach out to Microsoft and other companies that may be developing similar technologies.

 

Senator Schumer said he wanted to make sure the companies 'understand the significance of our concerns over the potential publication of images captured in people's backyards and other private settings.'

 

"Barbequing or sunbathing in your backyard shouldn't be a public event. People should be free from the worry of some high-tech peeping Tom technology violating one's privacy when in your own home," Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement.

 

Schumer wrote a letter to Google and Apple, asking the firms for more details about how their recently announced 3D mapping efforts will safeguard the privacy of those who might be photographed.

 

Few days back Google admitted it had already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy in the sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London.

 

Apple has recruited a private fleet of aeroplanes equipped with military standard cameras to produce 3D maps so accurate they could film people in their homes through skylights

 

Producing images of streets, homes and gardens so clear they will show objects just 4in across and display the sides of buildings as well as their roofs, the product is aimed as a direct challenge to Google Maps.

 

The technology is understood to have already been tested in 20 cities across the world including London following Apple's acquisition of C3 Technologies, a Swedish 3D mapping business, last year.

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20 Jun 2012(IST)  
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