Hello.
This app looks great! Though after talking to other butterfly enthusiasts, we are a bit concerned about precise location information being publicly available. Especially for endangered species. Collecting or poaching likely still poses a serious threat. As such I believe that locations should be obscured or at least for specific species. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!
I too am concerned about location hiding, but mostly because the majority of the butterflies I post are from my yard (there have been 20 species). Do I want the world to know exactly where I live? It feels like an invasion of privacy. And as you have mentioned the concern with endangered species.
At least for those, I would think it wouldn’t be too much of an issue if you moved the point to just the center of the county you live in. And maybe note if you like “Not Exact Location.
For scientific purposes, I don’t think putting them right on your house is needed, but county level would be nice.
HerpMapper (similar website for reptiles and amphibians only allows county level views from the public)
Hey @arbroadw13 and @Ingrid , thank you for your message, and I appreciate your concern.
We have implemented privacy settings for users when submitting checklists via the app or web platform.
We offer three levels of privacy:
To access the data usage settings from the mobile app, tap the species you want to mark while creating a checklist, then select the “Data usage” drop-down menu. On the web platform, this can be done in Step 3 of the submission process. Please refer to the screenshots below for guidance.
Since our system is checklist-based, obscuring one observation on a checklist with multiple species while leaving the rest visible would not make sense. Therefore, if you mark one observation as private or confidential, the entire location will be marked as such. You can check the privacy level of all your locations from the “My eButterfly” user menu on the web platform. Here’s a direct link: My Locations (e-butterfly.org)
Our large community of experts ensures that if a species in peril is submitted and not obscured, they can flag the observation. We can then override the data usage settings and make it private or confidential as needed.
I hope this answers your question and enhances your eButterfly experience.
Please don’t forget that we will have a set of webinars to discuss the general usage of the web platform and mobile app. See details below:
English Webinar - Jul 18, 2024 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) → Meeting Registration - Zoom
Spanish Webinar - Jul 23, 2024 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) → Meeting Registration - Zoom
French Webinar - Jul 25, 2024 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) → Meeting Registration - Zoom
Have a great day
-Rodrigo
