On reading the ToS for Bing Maps I see there is a restriction on the use of a device's location sensor in conjunction with the routing API in a Windows app, specifically section 8.2.e: (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/maps/product)
"Present or alert an end user to individual maneuvers of a route in any way that is synchronized with the end-user’s sensor-based position along the route (e.g. turn by turn navigation that tracks end-user’s position using GPS and communicates a
maneuver as the end-user approaches the location for such maneuver)."
This seems to me to be overly broad, and in relation to this I came across an old post that seems to indicate the purpose of this clause is to prohibit use of the service in products that compete with in-car navigation systems (https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/b669a3de-eb7a-4744-9730-fd7ba7b38c92/route-voice-command-start-voice-navigation?forum=bingmaps).
Even after reading through this multiple times, it still isn't clear to me how these restrictions apply in some use cases. For example,
- Is the restriction on the presentation of a route in relation to the device's current location limited to the route as displayed on a map, either a road map, aerial imagery, or otherwise? Or, if the route were presented as a set of directions in a
list control in the app and the device's current location was used to indicate what part of the route the user was currently on be OK?
- The aforementioned post specifically mentions in-car navigation systems as a motivation for this restriction. What if you wanted to use the Bing Maps API for (at least, in-part) real-time navigation on other transport modes, e.g. public transit, walking,
or cycling?
- Is it only the automated polling of a device's location (at a regular interval) that is covered here? Or, if the device's location was only determined in response to some user action (say, clicking a "get location" button) then stored in
the app as a "last known location" for correlation to a map route, would that be OK?
Unsurprisingly, Google's Maps API appears to have a similar restriction (ref. §10.4.c.iii, https://developers.google.com/maps/terms). I understand the anti-competitive motivation for these clauses, but I still find it bizarre that you're not allowed
to use a mapping API to track where you are on a map (or route). Just nuts.
