[OSM-talk] "Limitations on mapping private information" - wiki page

[Christoph Hormann]

On Wednesday 16 September 2020, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
>
> > simple:  Individual humans as well as their activities and social
> > interactions between individual humans - including permanent
> > physical manifestations of those - are not as such part of the
> > verifiable geography we intend to record.
>
> +0.9, I'd make it more precise: "private activities and private
> social interactions"

No, public activities of individual humans are not as such part of the 
verifiable geography either.  If my neighbor takes their dog for a walk 
on a certain route every day that is a public activity - yet does not 
belong in OSM.

> > The private swimming pool and the private driveway become part of
> > the verifiable geography because members of society on a larger
> > scale (i.e. not just the personal social environment of the owner)
> > interact with them on a routine basis.
>
> I'd question this. Noone has to show their private swimming pool or
> driveway to anybody, clearly not on a "larger scale". (I am still for
> mapping private swimming pools, and driveways, as long as we do not
> associate an individual with it, it has nothing to do with privacy.)
>
> >   In those cases mostly visually - but that can
> > be sufficient.
>
> mostly you can't see private swimming pools from the street, and
> according to the area, you also might not be able to see the
> driveway.

We might have different ideas of what a driveway is but a private 
driveway as i imagine it is part of the verifiable geography among 
other things because you have to take notice of cars coming out of 
private driveways as you drive along a public road.  In other words:  
The driveway becomes part of the verifiable geography by being used as 
a driveway.

For swimming pools that is certainly a matter of size - large swimming 
pools are however major constructions and major users of water supplies 
as well as reservoirs of water - to be used for example by firefighters 
in an emergency.  That is where i would see the interaction on a larger 
scale.

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