[OSM-talk] Accountability

[Nick Whitelegg]

On Monday 24 Jul 2006 12:55, Emil wrote:
> I think some people here misunderstand where privacy concerns are
> appropriate.
>
> Doctor's records: there's a big privacy issue here. Same with
> insurance companies records. Etc.
>
> Now, OSM accepts _voluntary_ contributions from people. If you are at
> all interested in keeping your movements secret, why on earth are you
> recording them with a GPS and uploading them to an open project??
>
> 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.
>
> The way I see it is that some people have got their knickers in a
> twist about privacy and think that this trumps everything else. So I'd
> like to turn things around and focus on accountability:
>
> * Why should people expect to be able to contribute to OSM and not be
> in any way accountable for their contributions???
>
> Now, I realise some people will disagree with this. I just want to put
> my view across.
>
> Emil

I think there needs to be a distinction between GPX traces and 
nodes/segments/ways. For the former, for reasons discussed already on the 
list, the option of privacy must be maintained, and since they are only GPX 
traces, there is no risk of copyright issues from that.

For nodes/segments/ways, however, they need to be associated with a user so 
that if someone contributes tainted data, their stuff can be removed without 
destroying the entire database. 

Nick