Obfuscate Data For Public Consumption - Best Practices?

Question

I'm looking for some feedback or best practice is on how I can take some data with exact locations of events and obfuscate the locations for public consumption in a web map.

I'm only aware of using the Near tool where it can find the X Y of the closest street segments, then display the X Y event data.  Effectively moving all incidents to the closest street.

Any other ways to hide locations?

WalidAlmasri1 · Answer

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

rozekc_washtenaw · Answer

I've aggregated point features into hexagons or other polygon shapes to still show general distribution of features on a map. If I needed the attributes, I turned them into a table and removed sensitive fields like names. Then in my dashboard, I could still make charts for age, gender, etc.

jcarlson · Answer

If you don't need the data to be accessible as a Feature Service, you could create a map image layer that displays the data with offsets.

Add the move effect to your symbols and enable symbol property connections.

Have your X and Y offsets defined by the expression (random()-0.5)*50 or whatever distance seems reasonable to you.

Here's a screenshot of a points layer being offset by that expression. Original points in small black, randomly moved points in red.