Apple deploys in Finland, Norway, and Sweden to collect Apple Maps data

Apple Maps West Virginia
Apple Maps West Virginia (Image credit: MacRumors)

What you need to know

  • Apple is deploying mapping vehicles in three more countries.
  • Parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden are being mapped in July and August.
  • The mapping will enable features like Look Around.

Apple has been working on rolling out a new map for a while now, and it looks like that effort is making its way to a few more countries.

Reported by AppleInsider, Apple is deploying vehicles to map out new areas in Finland, Norway, and Sweden between July and August. The announcement came through the Apple Maps Image Collection website.

The areas to be canvased are Finland's Uusimaa region near Helsinki, Norway's capital city Oslo, and Sweden's Malmo. The data collected by the Apple Maps cars will be used for Apple's Look Around feature, a competitor to Google's Street View.

Apple had finished rolling out its new map in the United States earlier this year and continues to fine-tune the data to ensure it is up to date. It is also currently deploying vehicles in Europe, Japan, and Ireland. The company uses a number of tactics to gather data, including cars, planes, and people with backpacks in areas that are inaccessible by vehicles.

Apple says that its mapping service, like its other services, is committed to user privacy and that anyone can contact the company to censor part of the map.

We are committed to protecting your privacy while conducting these surveys. For example, we will censor faces and license plates on images that are published in Look Around. If you have comments or questions about this process, your privacy rights, or would like to request that a face, license plate, or your own house be censored, please contact us.

According to AppleInsider, the company may have completed its map of the United Kingdom, but it has not been released yet.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.