Legal Status of Citizen Science and Data Policies About It

General
1

Hi everyone,

What is the legal status of iNaturalist and, more generally speaking, Citizen Science? I am specifically asking in terms of international legislation such as the Bern Convention.

​What is the legal situation in your country? How is the sharing of GPS information of sensitive species via iNaturalist perceived?

​Are there any restrictions or sanctions in this regard? Has anyone been subjected to them?

​In some countries or in your country are there data sharing protocols between iNaturalist and national administrations, especially regarding GPS sharing? Have there been any initiatives in this matter?

​Thanks.

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2

yes, this is how the iNaturalist Network operates.

Here is an extract of text from my how-to guide:

Once every six months, the ALA receives the true coordinates for Australian observations that have had their locations obscured on iNaturalist. Access to these true coordinates can then be requested through the ALA for uses such as research and conservation. If a user has uploaded observations from Australia to iNaturalist, but they haven’t affiliated their account with iNaturalist Australia, then the ALA will receive the true locations for their observations obscured via taxon geoprivacy, and the ALA can share these data with researchers. However, the ALA will not receive the true locations of any manually obscured records for users that have not affiliated with iNaturalist Australia. For users that have affiliated their account with iNaturalist Australia, the ALA will receive the true locations of all obscured observations, whether they were automatically or manually obscured. However, even though the ALA does store the true locations of manually obscured records, they do not share these with researchers: it is only the true locations of taxon geoprivacy-affected taxa that are shared. Thus, the ALA will never share the true locations of any observations that a user has manually obscured, and the only way for researchers to access these true locations is through contacting individual users, or utilising projects as explained earlier in this document.

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