I obscure most of my observations and I have a few users set as “trusted” because I know that they’re ethical and will make good scientific use of my observations. However, I have a few observations that are so sensitive I don’t want to share coordinates with even trusted users. Is it possible to “block” trusted relationships at the observation level? If not, can we get this feature?
I do not think that there is any option to block trusted relationships at an observation level. You could make a formal feature request for this.
To me, this proposal would be pretty confusing though, as it seems like an override of an override. That is:
The default geoprivacy is none
iNat allows the option of setting user geoprivacy (obscured or private) to override the default
iNat allows the option of trusted users to override geoprivacy
The proposed feature would allow this override to be overridden.
It seems like an option that would be confusing to many users on the face of it, and I would wonder how many observations it would apply to (seems like a really niche case). At some level, if there’s an observation that is super sensitive, it may make the most sense to just not add it to iNat.
One thing that might help is understanding the reason for wanting to upload these sensitive observations in the first place. For instance, the system currently allows for “private” as a geoprivacy setting, but then allowing trusted users to see private data which facilitates sharing of the geospatial data. What is the need for an option like this (ie, one could just not make the observation at all). If it is just to add the taxon to a lifelist or similar, you could add the observation with a point that is far from the true location and a very large accuracy radius (1000 km or whatever) which does encompass it.
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if there’s something that sensitive, i agree with not posting at all… or at least never posting a precise underlying location and never posting in conjunction with other observations. the obscuring function in iNat is not so robust that it can actually prevent all randos from getting to the location that you recorded in the observation.
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Thanks. I’ve decided the solution is just to be more conservative with who I trust with hidden coordinates.
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