Why you can’t always trust your map app

For centuries, people have relied on maps to figure out where they are and where they’re going. But today’s digital maps — seemingly more precise than ever —aren’t always as dependable as they appear.

At the end of August, for instance, Snapchat users woke up early to find the app’s internal map had renamed New York City with the anti-Semitic label “Jewtropolis.” In Washington, D.C., Google Maps incorrectly renamed a Senate office building after the late Sen. John McCain a few days after his death on Aug. 25. Researchers have found numerous fake business listings in Google Maps for plumbers and hotels — apparent attempts to game search results and juice referral traffic.

Digital maps are a modern uber-convenience, capable of pinpointing nearby landmarks, shops and restaurants, highlighting traffic jams and navigating you to destinations across the country. Google, Apple and a variety of lesser-known companies constantly update these real world representations using a variety of sophisticated tools, from satellites in orbit to the phone in your hand.

But there’s another important input: crowdsourced data submitted by ordinary people, which can make today’s maps more like Wikipedia than Rand McNally. When the navigation app Waze flags a highway accident, for instance, it’s because drivers further down the road have reported it. Other unpaid volunteers submit information on new business locations, landmarks and even new roads.

All that is a bet that the wisdom of the crowd eventually ends up getting it right. But “eventually” can take a while, and in the meantime, pesky humans can still muck things up but good.

Take, for instance, the morning of Aug. 30, when

AP PHOTO Greg Psitos works on a computer in the Queens borough of New York. In February, someone took over Psitos’ Google Maps listing, and changed his hours to closed on Valentine’s Day, what should have been one of his busiest days of the year. Since then, he’s been on a crusade, putting up web videos explaining how he’s fooled Google Maps into believing his flower shop is home to both news network CNN and Trump Palace, both of which are still listed on Google Maps.