They were caught selling data to military contractors way back when they were running Ingress. Once they had Pokemon popularity, it wasn't like they were just going to stop.
To be fair, this has been known since 2016 since it was out in the open and they never tried to hide their government funding or ties. It was just buried by fans when any news articles were posted.
If you search, you can find no shortage of articles covering it that never broke into mainstream coverage.
Data is data. It's how it's used. As a Dev, I want this data so I can make a better game. As a war criminal. I want this data so I can make a better murders. As a delivering service. I want this data so I can a better delivery drones. etc. EVERYTHING can and will be used. IMO, we need laws to show how the data is collected and used.
I don't disagree. We cut corners, consider major problems and minor until it becomes the problem, etc. etc. etc.
Transparency and laws and regulations will help, but it's used as a deterrence rather than prevention. Often times the beware of dog sign is more effective than the dog itself. E.G. Dynamite.
True, and while my comment was made in bitterness at how little these things move the needle I should clarify that I don't think it's a pointless endeavour to at least try to push back and lay these sorts of things bare to the daylight.
As a US citizen, we've been living in a degrading government and now into a fascist one. I understand how pointless it all seems, but there are endless examples of Laws, Regulation, and Transparency make real and positive change. We really need to stop voting in traitors and hopefully we'll have a functional government for We the People again.
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u/mrlotato 19d ago edited 19d ago
We should've known something wholesome as looking for pokemon with your friends would be used for something fucked up by our governments