[OSM-talk] Maintaining privacy as a casual mapper

[Oleksiy Muzalyev]

On 11/3/19 21:11, Mark Wagner wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Nov 2019 16:55:43 +0100
> Oleksiy Muzalyev <oleksiy.muzalyev at bluewin.ch> wrote:
>
>> You can assist from time to time in mapping the areas were there is
>> one or another trouble, like a military conflict, or a natural or
>> technogenic disaster. The list can be found here:
>> https://tasks.hotosm.org/contribute?difficulty=ALL
>>
>> This way it would be not easy to figure out in which place you live.
> Unless you're mapping the exact same things remotely as you are
> locally, this doesn't stop anything but the most naive effort to figure
> out where someone lives.  If a mapper is tracing buildings in Zimbabwe
> and adding restaurants in London, which is more likely: that they live
> in Zimbabwe and are armchair-mapping in London, or that they live in
> London, and are armchair-mapping in Zimbabwe?
>
Certainly, it is the STO, security through obscurity, the same as an 
anonymous user name or a rarely used e-mail for registration. For 
instance, the identity still can be easily found via the IP address if 
the authorities are involved in some way.

The really good idea is not to do and not to write things online which 
one would not say publicly in person, even if the user name seems to be 
anonymous.

However, there is a risk in not taking the risk. For example, what 
seemingly could be safer than to watch TV sitting in the armchair? At 
the same time the top global cause of death is the ischemic heart 
disease which can be prevented by physical exercise.

In a similar way there is some risk not only in mapping, but also in 
not-mapping well the district.

ref.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

Best regards,

Oleksiy