Why are some threatened, vulnerable and endangered species' locations being unobscured?

[jonnysperling]

For some reason when I went to look at my Osprey observation I realized the location of it had been opened up to everyone. I proceeded to go to a Loggerhead Shrike observation which is threatened and realized it had also been opened up. This had also happened with the Eurasian Wigeon and Bald Eagle which are vulnerable and endangered in California. Previously all these species weren’t open to the public but, obscured. Can someone please explain why these species aren’t auto obscured because now the locations of several Osprey, Loggerhead Shrike, and Bald Eagle nests can be easily found. Yes, I do realize that I can choose to go into my observations and obscure them however, with the amount of observations of threatened and endangered species everyone has posted it would just be easier if the new change could be reverted.

Thanks,
Jonny

[bouteloua]

Hi Jonny, welcome to the iNat Forum! For some previous flag discussions on these particular species, check out:
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/464158
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/349695
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/400263
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/466221

If you have a question or concern about the geoprivacy status of a particular species, head to the taxon page and flag it for curation. For example, search for bald eagle in the main header search and click About, which brings you to: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/5305-Haliaeetus-leucocephalus

Then on the right side of the page under the graph, click Curation, then Flag for Curation. You can leave a short note, then use the comments section once the flag is created to leave a longer message or provide URLs or other references if you’d like.

For more on iNaturalist’s geoprivacy policy, check out this page:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#geoprivacy

and many discussions on the forum: https://forum.inaturalist.org/search?q=obscured

[aisti]

If I read it right, one of your comments in those flag discussions pointed out that the conservation status for a given taxon in a given place doesn’t have an automatic correspondence to its being obscured for that place.

Do you (or does anyone) know why that is? Why not just tie it to the conservation status and not have to deal with double the effort?

(I recall that there’s some weirdness due to status inheritance in subspecies–could be that that’s the reason?)

[Star3]

@aisti

Why not just tie it to the conservation status and not have to deal with double the effort?

See discussion here for some proposed reasons why:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-handle-global-conservation-statuses-for-non-native-taxa/7118

[aisti]

Thanks!