Google Maps API Terms of Use

Question

When reading the terms for google maps api, I'm getting a little confused and I hope someone could clear it up. The terms state that you cannot do real time tracking or asset tracking. What does this really mean? Are they saying, you cannot use google maps api from the GPS device itself? Meaning I cannot show a blinking dot on a google map for tracking purposes? Another example, I have a web page that uses the geolocation built into the browser to get the lat and long. I save that to my db. Then from a desktop computer (or any internet device), I pull up a web page using google maps api and plot the locations I saved. This webpage would be real time, showing the latest coords that were saved from the device. I guess I'm not sure when they say real time or asset tracking, where to draw the line.

Is this type if functionality not allowed without a premier account? Any information would be helpful.

Answer 1

"Asset tracking" will mean that you can't track things like your company vehicles on the maps provided to the general public. "Real time" would mean you are constantly refreshing the map (as if you were tracking something).

Basically what the T&C's are saying is that you can use the maps freely for infrequent static position plotting or viewing. Anything more than this requires permission, and most likely crossing Google's palm with some silver to pay for the service. Last time i looked they had terms which stated you were only allowed to hit their server x number of times per day, and they reserved the right to restrict the maps you were requesting if you were generating too much traffic.

That is my interpretation, and it seems quite reasonable for a free service. As others have said, for anything more you would need to either contact Google or get your lawyer to interpret the legalese.

Answer 2

Preface: IANAL

To me, that sounds like they don't want you using their free services in a way that would cause an unreasonable amount of resources. Meaning, you can't create a GPS unit that queries the Google Maps API every second to draw a map. Nor do they want you repeatedly querying the system in an automated way so that you can "watch the dot move across the map".

If you are merely plotting coordinates stored in a database, I wouldn't suspect that this would cause a lot of problems provided you are only refreshing the map infrequently. If you have an automated system that is re-plotting all your coordinates every minute, then you are more likely to run into problems. The system you describes doesn't sound to me like a "real-time" system (since it doesn't auto-refresh as far as you have mentioned) so if you keep the updates to a reasonable level, you will probably be fine.

If you need to get updates more often than Google Maps' API will let you, it might be beneficial to look into the API for Google Earth. Since it is a standalone application, you may be able to query your coordinates based on offline or locally-cached map data that won't require hitting Google's servers and thus keeping them happy.