[OSM-talk] Maintaining privacy as a casual mapper

[Rodrigo Rodríguez]

On 3/11/19 14:11, 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?

This is actually I usually do, in order to enhance privacy. I map
several places around the world so that way if there was an entity
following me, it wouldn't know where I exactly am.

Of course, you could compare number of edits by places and assume by
that where I am most of the time.

Another approach would be to edit the POI's and GPX tracks in order to
change the time where you've been somewhere.

But to be honest, the most privacy feature of mapping is not to mapping
near the places you live. For example, if you're going to map your
neighborhood, start somewhere else, not your house or block.