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Establishing Geoprivacy Settings in iNaturalist
Establishing Geoprivacy Settings in iNaturalist
iNaturalist collects location data from users when observations are created and uploaded to the app. Location data is used in the categorization and identification organisms. For personal privacy protection, users also have the ability to manage geoprivacy settings for each observation.
iNaturalist has three geoprivacy settings:
iNaturalist has three geoprivacy settings:
Open
Open
Coordinates visible to other users. Good for public spaces.
Obscured
Obscured
Public coordinates are shown as a random point within a 0.2 by 0.2 degree area that contains the true coordinates. The area forms a quadrilateral with exact dimensions dependent on the geographic location. For example an "obscured" observation in Duluth would be found somewhere within an 8 x 12 mile rectangle. Obscured geoprivacy settings are good for observations from private property, such as your back yard or school yard.
Private
Private
Coordinates are completely hidden from public maps. Good for private property, BUT it means that the observation can be from anywhere on planet earth – does not generate useful data for some iNaturalist functions.
Geoprivacy setting provided on the iNaturalist Help page.
How to change geoprivacy settings in iNaturalist
How to change geoprivacy settings in iNaturalist
Geoprivacy settings can be changed before or after an observation has been added. It needs to be set for each observation individually.
From your phone/new observations
From your phone/new observations
Open the iNaturalist app on your device
Tap “Location visibility”
Select “Obscured” or “Private”
Tap the green check mark at the bottom of the screen
From your computer/editing existing observations
From your computer/editing existing observations
Log in to your iNaturalist account
Click your observations
Select an observation
Click edit
From the edit screen, click on the change geoprivacy caret
Change to “Obscured” or “Private” in drop down menu
Notes:
These steps can hide geographic information from public view, but no method of digital location restriction is perfect. If privacy is a concern, setting observations to private is the most direct way to hide geographic information. Other precautions when working with youth include creating a shared classroom iNaturalist account without any personal information and only observing in public locations. Check out our Nature Journal resources for a non-digital option.
For more detailed instructions on how to change iNaturalist geoprivacy settings, download this Power Point/Google Slides presentation prepared by Minnesota Sea Grant or read the iNaturalist geoprivacy settings help page.
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