[OSM-talk] Accountability

Wollschaf mith at uni.de
Mon Jul 24 13:29:19 BST 2006


Privacy at OSM concerns the email addresses and passwords which
should not be handed out. IPs should not be saved, either (only a MD5
hash). That way government can't use the tracklogs to pursue speed limit
violations ;) *puts tinfoil hat on*

Perhaps it is illegal in some countries to map something, IP addresses are
a bad thing to keep track of I think. It's not necessary (Or is it?).

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:55:41 +0100, Emil wrote:
> I think we need to think about ACCOUNTABILITY. If people upload GPX
> points, I want to see who uploaded them. Not the actual names and
> addresses or anything, a pseudonym is fine - but I want to have some idea
> who to hold responsible.

This will gain importance as the OSM userbase grows. It would be nice to
make tracklogs appear in different colors, the more an account uploaded
the more colorful they get. Frequent uploaders are more likely not to
spoof data.

> * Why should people expect to be able to contribute to OSM and not be in
> any way accountable for their contributions???

I don't think they should expect that, either. Actions taken that
alter the OSM data should be linked to a specific account. Some statistics
would be neat, perhaps the ratio of uploaded trackpoints to created nodes,
and deleted nodes per created nodes. Suspicious users could be found that
way.

There will have to be countermeasures against people with malicious intent
who want to damage our precious maps. I hope it still takes some time
until that starts.

Wollschaf






More information about the talk mailing list