MOLIT Grants Conditional Approval for Export of Google's High-Precision Maps

[Financial News] The government has decided to grant conditional approval for the overseas transfer of high-precision maps requested by Google LLC. The decision took into account expected economic and technological ripple effects in areas such as foreign tourism and map-based services. High-precision maps refer to 1:5,000 scale maps, where 1 centimeter on the map represents 50 meters in the real world.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 27th that, after reviewing a supplementary application submitted by Google LLC at a meeting of the inter-agency consultative body on the overseas transfer of survey data held on the 5th, it had resolved to approve the export on the condition that security requirements are strictly observed.
Previously, in November last year, the consultative body had asked Google LLC to supplement technical details related to national security, including security processing of imagery, restrictions on displaying coordinates, and matters concerning servers and post-management.
Under the conditions set by the consultative body, when Google Maps or Google Earth provides global services that include satellite or aerial images of the territory of the Republic of Korea, it must use only imagery that has undergone security processing in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Military and security facilities must also be obscured in historical time-series imagery on Google Earth and in Google Street View.
In addition, Google Maps and Google Earth must remove and restrict the display of coordinates for locations within the territory of the Republic of Korea in their global services.
The original data will be processed on servers located in Korea and owned by Google's domestic partner company. Only limited data necessary for navigation and route-finding services—such as base maps and road and other transport networks—may be exported. Data that are sensitive from a security standpoint, including contour lines, will be excluded from export.
If information on military and security facilities needs to be changed, the government will request prompt corrections from the domestic partner company, which will then make the revisions on its domestic servers under a managed procedure.
To respond to security incidents, a "security incident prevention and response framework" will be established that requires consultation with the government before any overseas transfer. Within this framework, a "red button" technical mechanism will be implemented to enable an emergency response in cases of imminent danger or specific threats to national security. A dedicated officer in charge of Korea maps will also be stationed in the country.
The government will verify whether the conditions have been met before allowing data to be exported, and plans to suspend or revoke approval if the conditions are not fulfilled.
The consultative body assessed that this decision on exporting Google's high-precision maps mitigates previously cited security vulnerabilities, such as the exposure of military and security facilities and the display of coordinates. In particular, it noted that by processing sensitive information on the domestic servers of a local partner company subject to Korean law, the authorities can secure effective control over post-management.
going@fnnews.com Choi Ga-young Reporter