Hello dear users, I have searched the forum for some time now, but I couldn’t find any thread that clearly answered this question. I generally upload my observations “obscured” for two reasons: a) a lot of my observations are in or around my home and b) I consider quite a lot of my observations as …

No, obscured data is not worthless. For plants (at least), obscured locations align with the status quo since most herbarium specimens (until recently) give a county-level locale (perhaps with a general hint of a finer-level locale). For this reason, distribution resources are usually compiled at ei…

The option to obscure location exists for a reason, and you should stick to what you’re comfortable with. I’m sorry someone was rude to you about it. For rare species (especially of plants and insects) certain scientists want to go find them and collect specimens (which may be one of the things yo…

For your home you can also use a pinned location, as I do. Mine is for my suburb. The flower in the sea is vulnerable in the wild - but mine will be rehomed when the leaves fade, too exuberant for a small garden! https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/elephant-s-eye-on-false-bay For what you want to…

I obscure for personal privacy as well as the fact my observations will be on iNat long after I sell. I wouldn’t want the new owners having THEIR property so well marked out! As for saying my obs. are worthless? My response is a silent “so what? Says who?” ( I don’t bother to respond) That’s up t…

[image] paule_u: an identifier commented something along the lines of “uploading observations obscured makes them worthless for science“ under one of my observations when i read what the other person actually said, and i don’t read that person’s words quite as negatively as “worthless”, but i…

Thanks a lot to everyone for replying so quickly and kindly! This helped a ton - very informative! Wishing you all Happy Holidays! All the best!

I started obscuring my obs when I had a mothing night where I uploaded a bunch (sorry to the lepidoptera IDers) and there were a few that were rare/endangered. After that I set almost all my obs to obscured because I don’t always want it to be easy for people to find the exact locations. Now, there…

While I have read and understand reasons why people obscure locations, I don’t agree with doing it. I may be in the minority here. If one of the big reasons for iNat is to document and share data on organisms, how does withholding a portion of the data help?

How helpful is it to not have ANY data because the specific location is not publicly available? Close isn’t good enough ?

I have no issue with close. I have issue with not having a clue which continent something was observed.

Geoprivacy: open vs. obscured

General

thomaseverest December 20, 2025, 3:21pm 6

Exact locations of obscured observations are not reported to GBIF:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/do-private-observations-impact-observations-utility-for-research/62733

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/obscured-data-exported-to-gbif/15517

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Geoprivacy: open vs. obscured

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