Anonymize GPS location in Mapeo

Help requests / Solicitudes de ayuda
#1

Hello community!

Is there a way to anonymize the GPS coordinates generated from a user’s current location during their data collection using Mapeo? We are creating a map to show some incidents that we do not want to use the real locations for. One workaround we found was to disable the location services on the mobile phones to let them manually enter the coordinates. However, it is not very convenient as they don’t always know the lat/long they wanted to use. It would be nice if we could tap a location on the map, and add a point there… but we don’t know how to achieve that. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

#2

Hola Mira, That’s an interesting feature request to consider for Mapeo Mobile. it would be great to understand the use case a bit better to assess if Mapeo Mobile is the right tool for this. The ability to drop a point on a map is a primary feature of the Territory view on Mapeo Desktop. Users doing territory mapping can look at different background map imagery to make geographic references and add points, lines or areas with category IDs. Depending on desired output, you may want the map data to be exported and processed in other tools like QGIS. Mapeo Mobile is designed to capture on-the-ground observations with photos and detailed notes and date/time data. However, we know that some users are adapting the use for community and territory mapping too by doing precisely what you describe. Turning off location functions on the phone and manually entering known GPS locations collected on a notebook with a GPS device. And you are right, it’s not the most convenient.
I’m curious about the need for anonymity. In an ideal world, what would anonymized geo-spatial data look like and how would interactivity work for data contributors, project witnesses, and or outsiders?