What is Reddit's opinion of Magic Earth?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

And what about the app "Magic Earth"? It routes you via OSM and has voice instructions as well. And it also gives you options to choose.

https://www.magicearth.com

It is in the Playstore and not in F-Droid.

But you can download it via "Aurora Store" (F-Droid Repository) from there.

For navigation, I recommend Magic Earth. The app is free, without ads, and privacy-oriented. Also important, you can download offline maps and use the app wherever you go.

You can read more about their privacy here.

Using OpenStreetMap data and following privacy rules could be two different things.

I’m usually very careful once something is packaged and you don’t have a direct visibility in code and what data is being sent outside of your own device.

Saying it, I had a quick look on privacy statement for the company preparing Magic Earth Navigation.

FYI: company is based in Romania and Netherlands.

Here you have a link to their privacy statement and also a data they process / store + their disclaimer.

https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/

https://www.magicearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MagicEarth-User-Data-Privacy_20190902.pdf

https://www.magicearth.com/disclaimer/

FYI: I’m not saying it’s good for privacy or it’s not. Didn’t have a change to use it and explore. My post is to keep you diligent and make sure it’s clear that ‘anything using open street maps’ is not equal to better than google ;-)

The only good thing waze has is the traffic info (and gas prices are handy), but magic earth is a good alternative that have a similar system https://www.magicearth.com
OSMAnd is a bit complicated but very flexible app

Google Maps didn't work out of the box on mine, but that might be because I didn't allow the necessary permissions. I didn't bother though, since I found Magic Earth to be a really good drop in replacement for Google Maps, with even some added feature like AI assisted dash cam, etc.

That page is clickbait. If you check the links, the first takes you to the apple maps entry in the app store. The second link takes you to a list of apks for android. The list includes:

• Google Maps
• Google Maps Go
• Waze - GPS, Maps, Traffic...
• MapQuest
• MAPS.ME
• GPS Live Navigation
• Maps Directions and GPS Navigation.

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If you want a good alternative to google maps. I recommend an app called Magic Earth (https://www.magicearth.com/) it has much smarter navigation that google maps (ie, no turning into cross traffic when it is busy - turning left for US and friends, turning right for AU and friends).

They have a a PDF of what they collect, why they collect it and how long it is kept for here https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/ It is very little and the app works quite well both offline and online.

Autonavina mulla OSM-karttoja käyttävä MagicEarth. Tämä ei tosin ole FOSS-sovellus, mutta yksityisyyden suoja huomioitu paremmin kuin Google Mapsissa.

Doesn't not require GPS?

I guess you don't have to enable location services, but I like Magic Earth. They publicly state their privacy policy and you can use it offline by downloading maps to your device. https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/

Not great. :/ They sell non-personal information and some location information.

Magic earth is a lot better (though some say it's not as good in terms of reliability and usage). > The information we collect is kept only for the purposes stated below, and for a limited period of time, after which it is destroyed.

> We do not store Personal Information generated automatically while you use our services.

> We do not sell or rent the information to marketers or third parties.

I try to stay on top of OklaDOT announcements and update OpenStreetMap in real time. If you just need a drop-in replacement for Google Maps, then Magic Earth is a good solution. Osmand gets more into it if you need better bicycle and pedestrian directions.

The Magic Earth app is well designed and good in terms of functionality, but I have some doubts regarding its privacy. The app is free and has no ads, so I wondered how they finance it. One possible explanation can be found in this document (which is linked from their privacy policy):

https://www.magicearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MagicEarth-User-Data-Privacy_20190902.pdf

According to the table the app uploads "traffic data", including GPS coordinates. Collecting this data may be a reason why they are giving the app away for free, because the parent company (General Magic) also sells commercial products featuring live traffic information. They say the uploaded data is "anonymously retained", but location traces are notoriously easy to de-anonymize.

Search Engines: They all basically suck. If Google sucks less for you, consider running it in a VM and destroying it frequently.

Or dedicate an old tablet to it using a custom gmail address dedicated to that one use. Open the account as an 18-year-old woman who's interested in tractor pulls and particle physics. Then when you have nothing to do during the day, search for weird shit in which you have zero interest just to mess with Google's algos.

Navigation: Magic Earth.

There is an app called "magicearth" in the aurora store, it has no trackers but please check their privacy policy for yourself if you are interested in using it, I hope it helped you :)

Looking at Magic Earth now and I'm hoping someone can explain what the "webpage accessed" lines mean in their data collection linked below? Other than that, everything passes my smell test.

https://www.magicearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MagicEarth-User-Data-Privacy_20190902.pdf

I wish there was, but unfortunately Google Maps is something that can't easily be replaced, at least with the same quality of information available.

Although I try to use open source alternatives as much as possible, I still have to rely on Google Maps from time to time. This is how I use Google Maps:

• De-googled ROM with microG (iodeOS)
• No Google account
• Google Maps installed into a separate sandbox in a work profile that does not have access to my main data, using Shelter and AuroraDroid. Google Maps is always 'frozen' when not in use.
• Location services off (manually inputting addresses goes a long way)

This should mitigate a lot of the Google location tracking, although it's not perfect, as long as you're using Google Maps.

The privacy-respecting alternatives I use instead whenever possible are:

• OsmAnd~
• Magic Earth - it's not open source, but it's based on Open Street Maps and has a good track record of privacy

Magic Earth is my favorite navigation app. It is privacy-oriented (no tracking as you can see here), it is free, without ads. You can download maps for offline use, so basically you can use the app wherever you go.

They have a PDF on their privacy page that you can download that shows what they collect, what it is used for and how long it is kept for that you can find here. You are also able to use it offline if you don't want any data collection.

Yes, there is: the Magic Earth app based on OSM maps. Ofline navigation, free app, no ads and privacy oriented!!!

Read more about their privacy here: https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/

Not precisely what you're asking, but the /e/ foundation's Lineage-based OS ships with MagicEarth. I don't think it's really open source right now, but they are considering it. It is a nice app, based on OpenStreetMap data.

Take a look at Magic Earth I have had some good luck with cycling routing, although it was local and not a tour.

https://cycle.travel/map is good and you can export it to another device.

And if you us iOS, iOS 14 is suppose to support cycling routing when it is released.

I'm no tourer, just studying up and trying some things in case I do one day.

I stopped contributing to Google Maps last year, after being frustrated at exactly this.

Openstreetmaps is the thing. I've been happily mapping in there ever since. Apps like https://www.magicearth.com/ are just as good as Google Maps, if not better, and if the map is poor near you, you can update it and make it better for everyone.

I did some really good mapping, when we could actually do that, adding paths, roads and buildings. Google took all that away, instead of building better moderation tools. It killed it for me, sadly.

OpenStreetMaps is quite a good open-source basis for privacy friendly navigation, and Magic Earth happens to be based on that. They are also Dutch.

But their Privacy Policy is short, and easy to understand, so why not check it yourself?

https://www.magicearth.com/privacy/

1. Magic Earth https://www.magicearth.com/
2. No clue. I listen on Spotify, because I haven't found a replacement yet.
3. No clue again.
4. Don't really use facebook anymore.
5. Simple File Manager Pro

You can try Magic Earth. I have it since yesterday, so I cannot tell how good it is yet, but I've heard good feedback about it and it does have traffic. They claim they are privacy focused, although the app is not open source. I must admit I am a bit puzzled about their business model...

For routing and completeness, it really depend on your location as you pointed out : some places are not complete at all. But we can say the same for any other maps (google, Here,...). If you go in Western Europe, there are a lot of place vastly better in OSM than anything else (a good example is Heidelberg in Germany where we had the last State of the Map). It can only become better and better. I don't know for your area, but isn't there a local/national OSM community and some open data for addresses or other features (from governement/cities...) ? You could then work with that to add addresses to OSM and improve it a lot. We do that in a lot of places around the world (by importing it, or manually checking it depending of the area). In a lot of countries, OSM communities try to work with government to share information and improve OSM and the official data (so improving both way), it also help everyone so they are often happy that we use their open data. ;-)

Did you tried the app "Magic Earth" ? We generally find it is pretty good and accurate around here (i'm in Europe so i can't judge for your place ^^'). They have traffic data crowd sourced as far as i know, and it is overall pretty correct (but it may be linked to the number of people using this kind of apps or the availability of other source for traffic like government real-time data ?!). They also just added an "add incident" button like Waze have. We often propose it as a replacement for Google maps to users, and most of them are happy with it. It is not open source, but it is privacy-friendly and use OSM with simple but great user interface. ^_^

I know that OSM is not for everyone, but everyone use it anyway because most of the people use services that rely (partly or fully) on OSM for their maps data : Facebook, Apple, Mapbox, ... to give some big companies.