[OSM-talk] Maintaining privacy as a casual mapper

[Christoph Hormann]

On Sunday 03 November 2019, Philippe Latulippe wrote:
>
> Are there better ways to maintain some privacy while editing the map?
> Are there some tools? Or is there a way to make edits in a way that
> doesn't reveal my username to regular users?

Your approach to this is the right one, creating and using different 
user accounts in rotation.

I can think of three other ways for more enhanced privacy:

* swap user accounts with other users occasionally.  You should only do 
that with people who you know and trust because this means you 
essentially have a shared responsibility for your edits.  This is also 
something that is not as universally accepted as having multiple user 
accounts individually.

* you can request your account to be removed:

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy#Account_Removal

You should not do that too often though since it is manual work for the 
admins.

* deliberately plan and conduct your mapping activities separately from 
your private life.  That might sound strange and inconvenient but it is 
not actually that different from what people do in everyday life.  If 
you visit a public event of some sort you will conduct yourself 
different from when you are in your own living room.  In a similar 
fashion it can make sense to plan and conduct mapping activities 
differently from when you are having a private hike or similar.


With all of this however you should always keep in mind that any 
measures to hide your editing patterns are in an inherent conflict with 
a functioning social interaction within the mapper community.  People 
tend to respect the need for privacy and tolerate measures to protect 
that but it can be problematic in communication with fellow mappers as 
well.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/