Problem users, whether it be vandals, trolls, spammers, or undisclosed/”rogue” organized mapping projects, is considered a problem all across OSM, but I would like to bring up some top examples of notorious problem users and major incidents involving organized mapping groups from the Philippines. Such edits are a perennial problem in the Philippines OSM community, and particularly in the time of COVID, I think the extended mass quarantines has make this problem worse as more people will be spending time in front of their computer, laptop, cellphone or tablet. While we have a ticket system to monitor suspicious editing activity, I feel it’s kind of Wild Wild West in OSM in the Philippines; new users are increasing (usually ones who only edit a few features, usually in their home area, before riding off into sunset) and not everyone will be patrolling the map for fishy changesets.

Vandals/trolls

bryanpiczon

Long-term vandal, often adding fantasy features usually in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. Has abused multiple accounts. Mostly interested in power lines and roads. Also vandalized areas outside the Philippines,

Joey Samson

Vandalism related to speculative real estate and transportation projects, especially around Manila. Some edits resulted in mass deletions (e.g. a former movie theater south of Manila). Also pesters users to add admin boundaries. 2 accounts traced so far (1 deleted following block)

Niwre Erv Apotseg

Vandal from Mindanao. Mostly duplicated roads, but also have added fictional features. Comments often nonsensical alphabet soup. Had 3 sock puppets.

Mass copying from GMaps

We also got some around 2 suspected copyright violations done in organized mapping efforts, one around Batangas Province (organizer still unknown, but possibly local government effort) in December and another involving a local ride-hail app operator early to mid 2021. Both have been involved in wholesale copying from Google Maps, noticed after comparing coverage. The one in Batangas has been mostly reverted manually, but the problematic data hasn’t been redacted. For the one involving local ride-hail operator, all edits are reverted following one editor coming into touch with me to address issues, and opened discussion with the local community; all edits reverted and redacted, and two accounts blocked.

Addition of personally identifiable info

We also witnessed a case of mass addition of personally identifiable info (PII) in one mapping project done east of Manila in 2019, involving mapping of a public housing site. Another case, in 2020, involved a corporate account for a local broadband company.