It's nice to know where this is coming from, because I was a bit confused about this too. In what way is my privacy protected if 2 million people can see my profile; oh and also everyone who bothers to make an OSM account? Putting a somewhat pointless access limitation to HDYC is counterproductive, as it might give people a false sense of security. One thing it might add is that it's now easier to trace who has been looking at your profile in case there is a suspicion of abuse.
Pascal's own argument (on Twitter) seemed to be that "it"s not just data, it's computed intelligence". Well yes. HDYC shows how much info you release about yourself through your OSM edits. The only way to solve this, is with a behavior change of the mapper themselves, or with a radically different way to share OSM data (as seems to be one of the ideas in the linked discussion). For example by using multiple accounts. A blog post about what an ill-intentioned analyst could do with your data would seem more productive than a half-measure protecting what a well-intentioned analyst learns. A more general discussion like the one you linked, but in a language more of us understand, might also help. That said, obviously HDYC is the most elaborate individual analysis tool around, so it does make snooping very easy. A system to opt-out of being included in this particular system might be reasonable. This could technically work in a way similar to the opt-in you can do to link your HDYC profile to your osm-related profiles (by including links in your OSM profile). While I would also have liked to see a more inclusive discussion about this, ultimately, it doesn't matter where and how Pascal came to his conclusion. It is his tool, so the decision is his alone. I would really love to see tools like this integrated into the core OSM systems, where we would theoretically all have a say. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
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