Can I store Azure Map search API result in my database? Only Geocodes!

Kaden Kang 40 Reputation points
2024-01-15T05:19:09.9133333+00:00

Hello, I am currently working on creating a travel community web service. My plan is to integrate the Azure Map Search API, allowing users to search for points of interest. I intend to save details such as the place name, location, and other related information in my database. This will enable users to add reviews to these points of interest. Could you please clarify if it's permissible to store parts of the Azure Map Search API's responses? I've had trouble finding the associated terms of service. For your information, the community web service will eventually display advertisements for monetization purposes. Thank you!

Azure Maps
Azure Maps
An Azure service that provides geospatial APIs to add maps, spatial analytics, and mobility solutions to apps.
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  1. Vahid Ghafarpour 22,430 Reputation points
    2024-01-15T07:21:59.8533333+00:00

    Thanks for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    The documentation does not explicitly mention any restrictions on storing parts of the API’s responses in your database.

    If the API returns information related to points of interest, be mindful of any privacy concerns associated with storing and displaying this information. Ensure that you comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations.

    ** Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful **

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  1. rbrundritt 18,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2024-01-16T17:32:19.3+00:00

    Official product terms can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/terms/en-US/productoffering/MicrosoftAzure/MCA Be sure to review these and seek legal advice as needed (not on public forums). The terms do allow storing geocode results in an Azure hosted database for the purpose of reducing latency. Basically, if you have a bunch of customer addresses in a database, you can geocode them ahead of time and store the coordinates with your addresses in the same database. This is a common practice. You could possibly also use the address information of the response to help fix/fill in blanks of your data, however, the geocoding service isn't designed for that scenario and accuracy would vary by location. If you however wanted to search Azure Maps for points of interest that don't exist in your database and store them, that would not be allowed. Point of interest data tends to have a lot more restrictions around it in general (these restrictions come from the data providers of that data).

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