Data quality and provenance
Provenance of each record
Each record stores its source, its collection date and the terms under which it can be reused. For OpenStreetMap these are the ODbL terms with attribution to the contributors.
Emails: organisations only
We keep generic organisation addresses (for example info@ or contact@). An address is checked for syntax and for the existence of a mail server by a DNS lookup only; no message is sent to test it. Personal mailboxes (webmail providers) and probable personal addresses are placed in quarantine and are neither counted nor published.
People
No individual is published. Records whose name looks like a person are stored without any contact detail in the public figures. Where a person appears in a delivered file, only an irreversible fingerprint (sha256) is kept.
Opt-out
Any organisation can ask for removal from the Opt-out page. The request is processed and the address is added to an exclusion list so that it is never loaded again.
Retention
Records that were not confirmed are deleted after about three years without contact.
Limits
OpenStreetMap does not cover every UAE company: the figures show our coverage, not the size of the market. Coverage improves with each source added.
Sources under review
Official open data portals and public directories are reviewed one by one before use: reuse conditions are recorded for each source, and a source whose conditions are unclear is not used.