[OSM-talk-be] Cell Phones Antennas

[Gerard Vanderveken]

I was looking up some on the map, but it seems that tower:type = 
communications is not rendered anymore???
I tought they were before, altough only in Osmarender, cfr VRT radio and 
tv towers in Overijse - Wavre.

I see some have a name, but I'm affraid that it won't add much, but 
instead duplicating and cluthering the rendering and names of the 
current places (buildings like churches etc)
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/7911333
Some has also very generic names eg. watertoren, kerk,  etc

There is a Wiki about GSM in the Belgian project
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Belgium/Mapping_resources#GSM.2FUMTS_antenna_sites

Should the points not to be deleted, until the status about their use 
becomes clear??
For the moment it is obvious that it is forbidden data.

Regards,
Gerard.

Pol wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I contacted them this morning and they asked me to write down a mail 
> explaining the request, why, etc etc etc.
> That's what I did. If you want a copy of the mail (in french), just 
> contact me in private.
>
> They told me that they will forward the mail to their law departement 
> and I should expect an answer next week.
>
> Let's cross our fingers ! ;) I'll keep you updated of the situation !
>
> By the way, I'll be at the hackdemocracy this Thursday, April 28, 
> 2011: http://www.meetup.com/HackDemocracy/events/17010026/
>
> Have a nice day all.
>
> -φol d.-
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:14, Pol <d.paolino at gmail.com 
> <mailto:d.paolino at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hello,
>
>     Someone forwarded me the mail from Lennard talking about the
>     revert or not of my commit.
>     I wasn't aware of the existence of that mailing list until now.
>
>     Let me explain to all of you how it all began...
>
>     One year ago I was looking, for personal purpose, the coordinates
>     of each cell phones antennas in Belgium.
>
>     The first site I found was: http://www.antennes-gsm.be/
>     But that one seems to be old and no more maintained.
>
>     Then I found the one of IBPT: http://www.sites.ibpt.be/
>
>     The one you are currently seeing at this address is the new version.
>     When I first found it, they were using an old version.
>
>     By doing some searches, I found a huge security hole in it.
>     I was unemployed at that time and I decided to make an exploit.
>     The exploit was simple, using HTML and JavaScript, I could
>     manipulate their databases by sending custom queries.
>     I'm not a kid and I'm someone who destroy someone else's work, so
>     I contacted them and explained the problem.
>     The reaction was fast, some days later I was in their offices with
>     my laptop, showing them the problem and the possible solutions.
>     I also made a new local proof of concept that it could be done in
>     a nicer and cleaner way.
>     Unfortunately, they were really kind and say thanks but we do not
>     rely on our team to do the map, we rely on another company and we
>     cannot break the current contract with them.
>     Before leaving, I asked to the head of security if it was possible
>     to get a dump of the antennas coordinates in a more easy way to
>     put it on OpenStreetMap and he said that it couldn't be
>     done: "Imaginez ce que pourrait faire qqun de mal intentionné s'il
>     trouve ces données!" which means: "Imagine what could do someone
>     malicious if they finds these datas!".
>     Which is completely a non sense because those datas can be
>     retrieved from THEIR online website.
>     I said him that ! Someone could spot by himself all the antennas
>     and put them on OpenStreetMap. He didn't reply to that one.
>     So, I leaved, quite sad.
>
>     Some month later, the current new system was in place and the
>     security hole vanished, problem solved.
>
>     With the new system, it's even easier to get their datas.
>     I decided to save in a file all the data I could get from their
>     map in a file and submit it to OpenStreetMap.
>
>     That's the end of the story.
>
>     It's up to you now to decide if you want to remove them or not.
>     If you have questions, I'll reply to them on that mailing list.
>
>     Nice evening all.
>
>     -φol d.-
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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