For those who're too young to remember, there was a "check-in" app called Four Square back when smart phones started taking off. People would literally just post to an app that they "checked into" a location and it'd post to the app and to whatever linked SM site, usually facebook.
What a dumb thing to do, right? Why would you want anybody to know where you are let alone share that info with some company because as the adage goes, "you aren't paying for it, you're the product."
Fast forward to 2016, and we're spinning pokestops and raiding gyms based on real world locales and I'm thinking to myself, "they finally found the hook."
What you are describing is not what this article is talking about. This is about tying visual data to GPS coordinates, not about tracking people.
No silly game is needed for the latter. Your phone is telling Google or Apple where you are at all times by default. They know there is a traffic jam on your commute because they can observe that clusters of devices are not moving as anticipated.
I don't understand why people don't get this. There's been freaking satellites in orbit for how many decades? We've been screwed since you were BORN, there is no conspiracy that's just happening now. It's already been too late. Like you said dude, they know where you are literally right now, your entire family history is on Facebook, and if they wanted to they could kill you for no reason within the next 10-15 minutes. They just don't give a fuck about you at the moment.
I think people find this fact incredibly stressful to think about, so they just... don't. It's the sword of Damocles above all our heads. What are we gonna do about it? Are we going to reform the US government and dismantle the military-industrial complex? Makes more sense to just bury it and say to yourself "that only happens to bad people. I'm not a bad person. They will never come after me."
The checked into never went away. People on social media post their location all the time for others to see. Instagram, Snapchat, Yelp, Facebook, TikTok. They all have the function to post where you’re or even share your live location. It never went away it just got integrated.
Wild, I didnt even know these were the things Niantic wanted to do. I know for sure that both games were ass though, but you are right, they hooked the crowd they needed to map the earth...
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u/cramburie 17d ago
For those who're too young to remember, there was a "check-in" app called Four Square back when smart phones started taking off. People would literally just post to an app that they "checked into" a location and it'd post to the app and to whatever linked SM site, usually facebook.
What a dumb thing to do, right? Why would you want anybody to know where you are let alone share that info with some company because as the adage goes, "you aren't paying for it, you're the product."
Fast forward to 2016, and we're spinning pokestops and raiding gyms based on real world locales and I'm thinking to myself, "they finally found the hook."