This isn’t really an issue, but more of something I’ve noticed. Many of my past observations, prior to the last couple of months, have been “moved” about 20 meters (~65 feet) from their original location.
What I mean is that I’m very precise when it comes to the location of my observations, with accuracy within 0-3 meters. Recently, I noticed that some of them appear to have shifted on the satellite map.
For example, beach observations are now shown in the water, and insects that were inside my house are now marked outdoors, etc.
Has there been a recent update to Google Maps or something similar that might have affected all iNat observations? I’m curious to know.
Popular free “satellite view” services (a patchwork of satellite and aerial photos from a variety of sources, really) can prove quite inaccurate geometrically (i.e. deformed) and geographically (i.e. shifted), at times dramatically so - with shifts in the 50-100 meters range locally. Successive updates can result in such background imagery shifting erratically all of a sudden. A few countries also mandate systematic shifts for security/political reasons. If you’re sure about your coordinates, because you used a good GPS device to record them for example, then there’s nothing to do: regrettably, the background imagery has shifted under your accurate points, like a sliding rug :)
Otherwise, it is best advised not to “pinpoint” observations using only some ‘free satellite imagery’ of unknown (unassessed) geometric-geographic quality… or else, use it, but make sure you then enter a fairly large “[in]accuracy” radius to cope with possible unknown (and future) shifts.
When in doubt, better rely on high-quality maps/aerial imagery by national geographical surveys (e.g. USGS, Ordnance Survey…), their accuracy reaches 1 meter or better nowadays. First, pinpoint your observation on their high-quality map/aerial imagery, then grab the “true” lat/lon coordinates thereof, and enter these on iNaturalist.
You can see how much a location shifts if you download Google Earth Pro and use the history function to scroll back through the various images used over time.
Sometimes the images are taken from directly overhead and the orthorectifying is easy and on point, but other times the images are taken from a shallow angle and locations can be shifted by a large amount, especially locations on slopes or hill/mountain tops. In extreme cases one whole side of a hill or mountain will simply be missing due to the angle at which the image was taken.
This is even an issue with DEM data, even high quality data you purchase from a GIS data supplying source, although they do a better job of rectifying the data.