Missing Locations showing as Private?

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Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Website

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About):

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Edge

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages:

Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/):
Observations are listed as “Private” geoprivacy when the location is not obscured, but missing entirely. The “true” private locations also add a blocked eye icon, but it is still confusing to have missing locations marked private. I suppose this could be a user action (eg. the observer marked the observation private AND didn’t enter the location), but I thought I should report it just in case it is a site error that null values for locations are displayed the same way as hidden values for locations.
A. List view with “true” private observation (1) and missing location observation (2):
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B. “True” private observation (1)
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C. Missing location marked as Private (2)
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Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):
As previously discussed, private observations appear different than observations completely lacking location data. The past few days when I have been IDing Unknowns, however, it appears missing locations are marked as private in list views

Yes, that’s what is happening here. Observations that are missing a location AND are NOT marked private still show Missing Location.

Thank you. I will adapt my messaging to tell them they can enter a location and it will still be hidden.

2 Likes

…and my memory is awful, because apparently I asked about this last year:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/clarify-geoprivacy-terminology-and-guidance/7212/31?u=star3