Protecting your privacy while contributing to OpenStreetMap

Created: 2026-01-04
Last updated: 2026-01-04

(This post is an updated version of an Akkoma thread.)

Here are some ways you can protect your privacy when contributing to OpenStreetMap, starting with trivial steps and ending with extreme measures. (What’s your threat model?)

Your display name

Don’t use your real name (or a pseudonym associated with you) as your display name.

If you’re finding that out too late, make a new account instead of changing the display name. Optionally, delete the old account.

Why not change the display name instead? Services like Who's that? built on the OSM changeset metadata dump allow anyone to search for your account by name (including past names), and look through the history of display names associated with an account.

Avoid mapping near your home

I don’t really like this one, because an active mapper has the potential to utterly transform their neighborhood on OSM like nobody else can.

Don’t treat your home preferentially - don’t make the mistake of mapping it first (like I did), and don’t map everything around your home except your home. Ideally, obscure your home by mapping your whole neighborhood (including your home) in a certain sequence (e.g. ordered by house numbers).

Avoid mobile mapping

Map remotely instead.

Restless ADHD people (like me) might prefer to use Vespucci or Go Map!! instead of sitting at a laptop to use iD or JOSM.

Remote mapping can be done using satellite imagery, drone imagery, and/or geotagged photographs, so it doesn’t have to be less detailed than mobile mapping.

Delay your uploads while mobile mapping

This way, you aren’t broadcasting your current location.

If your editor supports it, scramble your location history by uploading in a different order.

StreetComplete

StreetComplete has an option to turn off automatic upload, allowing you to upload manually.

MapComplete

MapComplete has some privacy settings you should look at, but I couldn’t find any way to turn off automatic upload. See issue 2615.

CoMaps and Organic Maps

CoMaps and OrganicMaps kinda-sorta do this out of the box - your edits are uploaded when the app enters the background.

In practice, this makes for a very unpredictable upload behavior and poor user experience. Users think their edits were uploaded, but when someone checks on osm.org, they find that nothing was uploaded. CoMaps and organicmaps developers - please implement manual upload instead 🙏

OsmAnd

In OsmAnd, enable “Offline editing” in the OSM Editing plugin.

You can batch your uploads by going to My Places - OSM Edits - tapping the upload button in the bottom-left corner - selecting some edits - tapping the upload icon in the top-right corner. (Thanks to sahilister for suggesting this.)

Vespucci

In Vespucci, you can selectively upload individual elements (select/multiselect, then overflow menu - “Upload elements”).

You can also combine that with the “Search for objects” operation to upload all objects in a certain view. Unlock - overflow menu - “Search for objects” - type (new or modified or deleted) inview - overflow menu - “Upload elements”.

I use this functionality all the time. (Thanks to Vespucci developer Simon Poole for telling me about it.) The “Search for objects” field suggests past queries to you, so in practice this is faster than it sounds.

Obfuscate your identity via account shenanigans

  1. Share an account with a friend or two. (Thanks to JauneBaguette for reminding me). Works better if you’re not editing together (in the same area) too often.

  2. Use multiple OSM accounts, with random names. You could have an account per app, or an account per area you edit. You could also create throwaway accounts, deleting old accounts every so often.

    Each account needs a unique email address, so use an email provider that allows easy generation of throwaway email accounts.

Lastly, OSM works just fine over Tor, just so you know 🙂