[OSM-talk] privacy policy

[Andrew Findlay]

On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 12:43:33AM +0100, SteveC wrote:

> This is a call for people to edit/review the Privacy Policy

I have simplified the wording in a few places and added one or two
notes.

This raises some issues about usernames: The Wiki allows people to
choose their username, but the Map requires the use of a valid e-mail
address. It does allow the user to choose a display name, but I
suspect these do not have to be unique so they are not much good for
attribution. Is there any plan to link Wiki usernames and Map
usernames?

On a related issue: there does not appear to be a way to change Map
passwords. This is a serious security problem.

> One major thing I don't see addressed is that we won't release GPS
> traces that people have not made public. Something generic about not
> releasing things people have not made public, and their email
> addresses...  would be useful. But I imagine the 'display name' is ok.

Perhaps we should have a separate page with advice on how to process GPS
tracks to reduce the chance of them being correlated with other data. For
people who are worried that some repressive government would link the
tracks to CCTV recordings, it is much better that they pre-process the
tracks before uploading. In reality it is almost impossible to protect
against a determined analyst, but there are techniques that might give
some people a bit of comfort.

> There is a clear problem with attribution too, as I've said before.
> Publishing everyones email address is not cool and invasive, but it's
> implied in publishing all the OSM data under the license we have
> (attribution). How are we going to solve this?

How about having an attribution page on the site somewhere and
allowing people to have their names displayed if they wish? The
attribution is then to the list of people on that page 'and many
other anonymous contributors'. Obviously, the attribution statement
to be displayed by people using the data should *reference* the page
(possibly with a date) rather than *copy* it.

Andrew
-- 
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|                 From Andrew Findlay, Skills 1st Ltd                 |
| Consultant in large-scale systems, networks, and directory services |
|     http://www.skills-1st.co.uk/                +44 1628 782565     |
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