What3words: Difference between revisions
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'''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words What3Words]''' (W3W) is a proprietary geolocation system developed by What3Words Limited, assigning three-word combinations to 3×3 meter squares across the globe. It is marketed as a simple alternative to latitude/longitude for navigation, logistics, and emergency services. The system is entirely closed-source and is protected by patents, copyrighted wordlists, and trademarks. | '''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words What3Words]''' (W3W) is a proprietary geolocation system developed by What3Words Limited, assigning three-word combinations to 3×3 meter squares across the globe. It is marketed as a simple alternative to latitude/longitude for navigation, logistics, and emergency services. The system is entirely closed-source and is protected by patents, copyrighted wordlists, and trademarks. | ||
Although widely promoted for consumer use, What3Words has been the subject of significant criticism from security researchers, mapping experts, emergency response professionals, and open-data advocates. Criticisms focus on its proprietary nature, licensing restrictions, algorithmic opacity, similarity-based errors in safety-critical contexts, and the company’s history of issuing legal threats against researchers who attempted to analyze or replicate the system.<ref name="tc2021">{{cite web|title=What3Words sent a legal threat to a security researcher for sharing an open-source project | Although widely promoted for consumer use, What3Words has been the subject of significant criticism from security researchers, mapping experts, emergency response professionals, and open-data advocates. Criticisms focus on its proprietary nature, licensing restrictions, algorithmic opacity, similarity-based errors in safety-critical contexts, and the company’s history of issuing legal threats against researchers who attempted to analyze or replicate the system.<ref name="tc2021">{{cite web |author=Zach Whittaker |date=29 April 2021 |title=What3Words sent a legal threat to a security researcher for sharing an open-source project |url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/30/what3words-legal-threat-whatfreewords/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250722052654/https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/30/what3words-legal-threat-whatfreewords/ |archive-date=22 Jul 2025 |publisher=[[TechCrunch]]}}</ref><ref name="bbc2021a">{{cite web|title=Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies|author=Chris Vallance|date=31 May 2021|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57156797 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260220180059/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57156797 |archive-date=20 Feb 2026}}</ref> | ||
==Consumer Impact Summary== | ==Consumer Impact Summary== | ||
*'''User Freedom:''' Limited; closed-source design, restrictive API license, and prohibitions on independent implementations.<ref name="osm">{{cite web|title=what3words codes in OSM|publisher=OpenStreetMap Wiki|url=https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/What3words |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251004212017/https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/What3words |archive-date=4 Oct 2025}}</ref> | *'''User Freedom:''' Limited; closed-source design, restrictive API license, and prohibitions on independent implementations.<ref name="osm">{{cite web|title=what3words codes in OSM|publisher=OpenStreetMap Wiki|url=https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/What3words |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251004212017/https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/What3words |archive-date=4 Oct 2025}}</ref> | ||