Profile on private#345

Generally, I would love the ability to set my profile completely on private, so that all info I add remains just for myself.
Then it would be something like a reminder (or you can even say travel journal) for me.

This would mean that the URL you showed would be hidden if set to private.
From the items listed, these would be private as well then:

• Countries visited
• Places I’ve been
• Places I want to go

Places added and edited would here also not be seen, but by it’s nature you would see it on the edited sections (although, you could even there make it that it is seen that it was edited by a member, but it is shown that the account is private so you do not have a link nor a username visible just the info ‘edited by private member’)

Why do people oppose this suggestion? I would be interested in the reasoning.

Note that many other platforms offer setting profiles to private.

I think all the big social media platforms now need a fair bit of personal info to verify accounts, partly to fight fake/spam profiles. So I can see why private profiles make sense there, they have more info and it’s more delicate.

But can’t you just start an AO profile using only an email address? I feel like, if you don’t want personal info on this site, you just don’t add it. Not particularly sure what making a profile private would help prevent.

I would guess that people would want to create an account on Atlas Obscura to use it to track places that they have visited. The problem with doing that is that the information becomes public. That type of information could be considered personal identifying information. It is unclear whether the location information itself would be enough to identify people, but it is still a concern for some people. People who want to keep their location private would currently be unable to use an Atlas Obscura account for its intended purpose.

One of the apps that I use that also collects positional information is Strava. That app has a large variety of privacy settings, including keeping my account entirely private or only sharing my location with friends. I therefore do not worry about people figuring out where I live when I use the app. Atlas Obscura’s locational information is not the same as Strava’s and is not going to indicate the location of people’s homes, but the positional information in Atlas Obscura could still make some users anxious.

(Also note the news item from a few years ago about how Strava accidentally identified the locations of a few secret US military bases and other facilities with their anonymized location information.)