What data is sent to Google Maps API

Question

I have searched for information on data and data security when using the Google Maps API, but I haven't been able to find anything that answers my specific question. We were looking to use Google Maps to to plot our customers and overlay some other information on top. I have all the customer details (name, address, postcode, Lat, Lon and other key details) in a file and have been using some test data. I have successfully been able to plot the test data on Google Maps and it looks like it is exactly what I would want to use.

The question I have is what data is sent to Google for the map to be rendered - does all of my data go external, or am I just pulling the maps back to the browser and rendering the data locally within the browser (ie. no data goes externally).

Thanks

Answer 1

Your additional data are never sent to Google servers. All the map is built in JS, so once you have loaded Gmap scripts, there is no need to sent data.

You can check that in your browser developer console : no additional AJAX request are made to Google, once the first one for displaying map is finished.

If you use geocoder or directions service (and maybe other services, but I have never use them), you have to send addresses or LatLng to Google via AJAX in order to make calculation.