Every once in a while, I come across pics where the observer has used a piece of ID, usually driver’s license or student card, for scale or some other reason.
(example removed by forum moderator)
It doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the observation, but its obviously a foolish thing to do nonetheless. Flagging said pics as a copyright violation is the only way to hide them, but its technically not correct. One argument, I suppose, is why should we care if the user doesn’t care about identity theft or risking fraud perpetrated in their name. Yet those crimes cost us all, so should we care anyway? And how can we deal with it, if at all? What do you think?
I think you did right leaving the comment, I never thought that people would be so careless these days with id cards, maybe writing personal message to the observer or iNat staff so they could contact the author via mail if the user is no longer with us on iNat.
Definitely leave a message. If the ID is something official / government-issued like a driver’s license or passport, better to flag it for safety.
But it may be worth checking why they use an ID. I see a lot of people using college ID cards and I’m thinking their professor may have asked them to do this so as to avoid people copying old photos.
If this is the case, maybe we should also put into the educators guide a tip on ways to assure unique photos without jeapordizing the safety of students.