[OSM-talk] HDYC, login requirement and "privacy"

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 05.05.2017 10:37, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
> you write a lot about personal data, but all osm admins have about
> users is some email address, which often isn't even existing anymore
> and an associated user name

Many people choose their real name, or at least something easily
linkable to their real name via one hop on Github, Facebook, etc.; many
social media platforms even *expect* you to give your real name.

Of course they don't *have* to in OSM. But if they do use their real
name then I don't think you can interpret that as willfully signing away
their right to privacy. "Ha ha, your own fault for using your real name,
didn't you think about your job application with the Chinese government
25 years later, shoulda been more careful!"

I think that even if they are careful enough not to use their real name,
the identity of a mapper will often be easy to reconstruct if you have
access to just a little bit of extra information (might be as little as
a name on a doorbell).

> Also everyone can create new users at will, if your concern is
> privacy, you could use a new user for every edit and nobody could
> associate these edits to the same person.

This is true. It would actually be possible to write a plugin for JOSM
to do that - automatically sign up to OSM with a different throw-away
account for each changeset you upload. Do we want to encourage that?
Frankly, I'd rather not. But if that is our official suggestion on how
to balance privacy with contribution to OSM, maybe we should offer such
a plugin.

> Putting a log in to hdyc, from my point of view, doesn't change
> anything (because everybody can sign up), besides that there are now
> more data created (Pascal will know who is interested in whom, and
> osm admins can see how often someone uses the service, and if it
> becomes common to do it like this, which third party services someone
> uses).

That is true. The log-in required for HDYC currently only has symbolic
character and it says "this is for community members only". We're an
open community and you can become a member with a few mouse clicks. But
I think the symbolism is of value and I support Pascal's decision.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"