Ask HN: Is it legal to store/cache data retrieved from Google Maps APIs?

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2 points by grif-fin 3148 days ago

Looking at the Google API terms & conditions about ownership (https://developers.google.com/terms/#c_ownership), it is confusing for me whether or not it is possible to store/cache the data retrieved from Google Maps API.

Say company X has an App with a million users. Users trigger calls to Google API with their locations every time using the app. Company X is storing/caching the data and soon they are semi-independent from Google Maps API.

Is there something illegal about this?

1 comments

tixocloud 3148 days ago

Looks like it's stated in section e that you are not permitted to:

Scrape, build databases, or otherwise create permanent copies of such content, or keep cached copies longer than permitted by the cache header;

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grif-fin 3148 days ago

Oh yes, I missed that. Thanks.

Now this is where the public data gets confusing. If I use open maps API and build my database, how can it be proved that via which API (Google Maps or Open Maps) it has been built to be accused?

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tixocloud 3148 days ago

That will probably come down to how well your defense is against Google's lawyers.

Now, I'm not a lawyer but I have read and been involved in my fair share of contracts. My understanding is that you might not be able to claim negligence that you were unaware or you were not sure. They might ask you to take down the entire database if you have not proof which data is from which API.

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