I apologize for bringing this up again. I’ve been reading and re-reading the posts related to this issue, but I’m still unable to make changes. (Many of the posts that come up on a search are ancient-- from 2019-- and no longer valid) Like others posting here, I initially set my default geoprivacy setting to “private” because almost all my observations were in my back yard. When someone commented on an identification that they needed the location information for an ID, I figured it out and changed it to “open”. Now I am more concerned about personal privacy (especially when I make observations at a friend’s house) and I would like to change it to “obscured”. Even though I have gone thru the privacy setting process twice now, I still cannot intuit or find instructions for how to change this. I tried the batch change technique described in another post and was able to access the screen on which I should have been able to do this, but nothing happened when I clicked “Apply”. So I decided to be content with defaulting future observations to “obscured”, but I cannot intuit or find instructions for how to change this setting, either! Should I make a Feature Request for a searchable procedure to address this?
There is no such thing as a default geoprivacy setting. You can’t default set all your records to a setting, so I am unsure what you think you may have done.
The site had previously said they will not implement a setting allowing a default setting of obscured or private be applied to all records as they do not view it as in line with the community focus of the site.
Did you select Apply geoprivacy? That works for me.
You can select geoprivacy for observations when uploading, but you can’t change that in your settings.
Hi @lisapaloma, welcome to the forum! It looks like you mainly use the Android phone app for your observations, correct? To edit the geoprivacy of an individual observation in the Android app, I will have to let someone more familiar with the app chime in, since I mainly use the web site.
If you can use the web site (inaturalist.org), you can find instructions and screenshots for changing geoprivacy on batches of observations by clicking here:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/change-geoprivacy-on-multiple-observations-at-once/23570
To change a single observation on the web site, go to the observation detail page, and click the blue edit button at upper right (not the down arrow next to it). At bottom center, right below the map, is a box to Change geoprivacy. Be sure to click Save Observation after making the change.
And yes, as already noted, the default geoprivacy for iNaturalist is always “open” (unless it is a threatened species), and users can’t set a different default in their account settings. Obscured or private geoprivacy always has to be specified for each observation or batch of observations that you upload.
Hope that helps.
I, too, make most of my observations in my own backyard. I have “pinned” my location of my home backyard in my list of pinned locations. That pinned location has a setting of obscured geoprivacy. Therefore, it’s almost like a ‘default’ setting because when I add, say, 20 observations from my yard, I just select all, apply the pinned location, and all of them are therefore obscured. I don’t use the obscured setting when I make observations in local parks or similar places, just for my own yard. This may be what you’re thinking of as a ‘default geoprivacy setting.’ If someone wanted to know the coordinates for a project of some kind, I might allow them access, but I can take the geoprivacy off for that person/project. It would only change it for that one observation.
If you’re using the Batch Edit feature to change geoprivacy just clicking ‘Apply geoprivacy’ doesn’t complete the job, it only prepares the records. You have to scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Save All’.
Cheers
I have made a pinned location. For my suburb. Centred on the Civic Centre. The circle around the suburb includes my home, and provides the info needed for IDs. But does not reveal My Home or street address.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/75916062 a very tiny bee
Thank you for your response!
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