If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks.
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
@osm_tech @evawolfangel #hint , vielleicht was für dich.
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
@osm_tech if you have anyone with a good microphone/audio setup, who's willing to speak on a podcast, I'd be happy to record something for one of the @latenightlinux shows.
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
@osm_tech anything I can volunteer to help?
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
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@osm_tech what is a embedded-Sdk network?
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@osm_tech@en.osm.town 404 media might be interested in this - they've been doing a lot of pieces about the impact of AI
@ClaireH @osm_tech @404mediaco here's a good story idea, OSM is having issues with AI scrapers
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
@osm_tech perhaps people at the Chaos Computer Club would be interested to look into that:
https://www.ccc.de/en/
Or maybe someone at Netzpolitik:
https://netzpolitik.org/ -
@osm_tech @evawolfangel #hint , vielleicht was für dich.
@fuzzle @osm_tech Oder @heiseonline oder @netzpolitik_feed
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@osm_tech @geerlingguy I would 100% watch a video about that. Just throwing it out there

@LMieldazis @geerlingguy oooh do we get to show him our out-of-band (remote access) Raspberry Pi with dual power feeds, 4G modem and loads of serial connections? Saved our skin a good few times.
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@osm_tech I wonder if there's a way to fail2ban requests coming in faster than typically found in human requests.
@BalooUriza We use fail2ban to handle some of this with custom rules, but eventually fail2ban becomes a bottleneck after 100,000 IP addresses.
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@osm_tech anything I can volunteer to help?
@eigen we're always looking for more volunteers to join our team.
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@osm_tech if you have anyone with a good microphone/audio setup, who's willing to speak on a podcast, I'd be happy to record something for one of the @latenightlinux shows.
@joeress @latenightlinux Sounds interesting. We'll follow up by email.
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If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
@osm_tech Tell me more. You can reach me at sjvn01 <at> gmail.com
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@BalooUriza We use fail2ban to handle some of this with custom rules, but eventually fail2ban becomes a bottleneck after 100,000 IP addresses.
@osm_tech @BalooUriza For IPv4, a bitmask of the entire address space is a viable "efficient" implementation of blocking. I wonder if there are tools that can do it that way rather than needing a gigantic list.
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This gets ugly really fast, if you want to see the full extent: <https://alternativeto.net/software/netnut-proxy-network/> for a list of _known_ residential proxy-providers.
@AliveDevil @utf_7 @osm_tech So ridiculous that Google and Apple won't just permaban any developer embedding one of these "SDKs".
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@osm_tech The proxy SDK providers need to be treated like the DDOS providers they are and prosecuted.
@InsertUser @osm_tech Pulling them from app stores and banning developers of the SDKs would be a good start. Save the criminal charges for after the damage control is done.
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@pietervdvn Because that would involve a human using their brains or having a shred of conscience and those both go against the basic principles of the companies doing this.
@InsertUser @pietervdvn @osm_tech It goes against their whole ideology. The ideology says trust the machine to do what it copied from scraped Stack Overflow posts. If you try to intervene to make it do better, you're not trusting it.
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@osm_tech @BalooUriza For IPv4, a bitmask of the entire address space is a viable "efficient" implementation of blocking. I wonder if there are tools that can do it that way rather than needing a gigantic list.
@osm_tech @BalooUriza Like, a bitmask of IPv4 space is several times smaller than a Chrome instance.

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@AliveDevil @utf_7 @osm_tech So ridiculous that Google and Apple won't just permaban any developer embedding one of these "SDKs".
@dalias I'd wish for them to enforce policies, but they get Ad- and IAP-revenue, so why bother.
Also, these "Sdks" probably have kill-switches (or rather, delayed activation) built-in, to not immediately contact their C&C servers.
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@dalias I'd wish for them to enforce policies, but they get Ad- and IAP-revenue, so why bother.
Also, these "Sdks" probably have kill-switches (or rather, delayed activation) built-in, to not immediately contact their C&C servers.
@AliveDevil Yes but they could still be banned when caught. A few devs getting banned would be a big deterrent for others to ship this malware.
The right *technical* defense, however, is not to allow apps arbitrary network access unless they're declared in the manifest as a "browser" or other "client software" that the user can use with any service they want (like IRC clients, mail clients, Mastodon clients, etc.).
Instead, the manifest should declare a single domain the app can contact, or multiple if the developer is willing to pay for more intensive vetting of them, and only allow network access to the declared domain(s).