[brendan_gill]

There are a number of others building hotspot databases like this but mainly taking a purely automatic, heuristic approach. Our plan is to augment this with an engaged community of users who can help curate the database further in a way that isn't possible through an automated-only approach. See my comment below for more details.

[amk_]

Wifi Sense actually shares credentials with your contacts and vice versa, so you automatically connect to hotspots within your (social) network. Not sure exactly how it handles duplicate SSIDs and things; probably with the heuristics you are talking about.