Cyberlyra

Ten years ago, Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook games to tweak UK and US voters and torque world geopolitics.

Today we find out that the company behind Pokémon Go used all your data finding Pikachus to teach autonomous robots how to navigate and take away your jobs.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/pokemon-go-delivery-robots-crowdsourcing/

‘Pokémon Go’ players have been unknowingly training delivery robots

The massive crowdsourcing effort could use real-world to help robots deliver pizza.

Popular Science
Mar 16 at 2:08pmWeb
Show threadSteve Karsch 🤘🏻4d ago
@cyberlyra This is sad. I mean, I know it was happening. I was going to pass this article along to my son to warn him but geez, he knows the world sucks, why ruin this tiny bit of joy for him? Nothing is fun anymore. Everything is a monetization of a privacy invasion.
Show threadBogdan Buduroiu4d ago
@karschsp @cyberlyra geocaching is fun, and not monetised, and a testament of human capability to come together for no reason than to have fun and pass the time
Show threadSteve Karsch 🤘🏻4d ago
@budududuroiu Good point! Thank you.
Show threadsnowyfox4d ago
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Show threadJane4d ago
@cyberlyra I feel like that’s a pretty dramatic comparison to draw… Cambridge Analytica was electioneering to undermine democracy. Not having to be a pizza delivery driver is a very different class of outcome 🙄 This just seems like a clever use of gamification to improve models, more akin to Alpha Fold than Cambridge Analytica
Show threadPasswordsarehard44d ago
@janeadams @cyberlyra what if they sell it to other companies? I could definitely see ICE wanting to get a camera into peoples homes and not caring about pesky “warrants” and such.
Show threadAcroamatis 🇨🇦4d ago

@passwordsarehard4 @janeadams @cyberlyra

The camera data is deliberately non-realtime in order to save bandwidth. Maybe there'd be some value in shots of someone's carpet from three weeks ago, but I doubt very much ICE would want 'em.

Show threadAcroamatis 🇨🇦4d ago

@passwordsarehard4 @janeadams @cyberlyra

Also, generally, I object to "Unknowingly". It was explicitly in the EULA for both games. It was basically the _point_ of Ingress. "We want to crowdsource an enormous amount of data about public spaces. Here's a game that does that."

PoGo, of course, took off well beyond that, and Ingress has toddled along with _enough_ revenue notwithstanding the data collection, but that was always the point, be it AR or robot pathing.

Show threadTxo!?4d ago
@janeadams @cyberlyra also I may think Cambridge was illegal and this was legal but nobody cares about terms and conditions. Could it be?
Show threadschrotthaufen4d ago
@cyberlyra @blogdiva Yeah, and ingress before that. (It’s the same game, basically.)
Show threadMungen Cakes ✅4d ago
@cyberlyra I play that game. The feature they use to gather the data is called "scanning", you walk around a geographic feature while video is being taken then download it to complete the task. You are required to keep moving within a certain distance of the feature. To defeat this you walk around the area with your thumb over the camera or with the camera pointed at the ground. To stop getting those tasks you just leave one uncompleted.
Show threadMungen Cakes ✅4d ago
@cyberlyra *upload
Show threadpeterfisherbooks.com=freescify4d ago

@cyberlyra yet another sign the apocalypse is upon us. why? before they rubbilize everything making the dataset moot, the terminator robots will gladly incorporate the 'where to best hide' info gathered during the seeking segment of the game

so it goes humans viscerally need to build lethal robots needless to say with millions of potential targets freely supplying data they'll be ultra-efficient at playing hide&seek. ash and team rocket: coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Show threadNetraven4d ago
@cyberlyra I'm sure it's more than that, but yeah.
Show threadjan-leila4d ago
@cyberlyra its amazing how in a different world this would be a huge win for society
Show threadluca4d ago
@cyberlyra And in ten years we will discover that the so called AI... Oh wait, that's already well known.
Times have changed, you can't set up a sloppy evil plan that it's already ruined the fun.
Show threadFace Thumb4d ago
@cyberlyra Of course. Everything is for sale. This probably isn't an exclusive deal, the data is probably also sold to mapping companies, car companies, defense. Google and Apple are some of the largest ad companies in the world and they get access to your location data 24/7. The only winning move is to not play at all.
Show threadTael 🔜 AC264d ago
@cyberlyra To be fair, it was well known that Niantic was selling your data since Ingress. If you're not paying you're the product
Show threadMike Thurston3d ago
@cyberlyra that's unbelievable, how come I never heard it
Show threadjonathan3d ago
@cyberlyra Niantic has not been secretive about this, they have pitched their "VPS" thing for many years.
Show threadEsther Payne 3d ago

@cyberlyra you know I'm always a little amazed that folks in CompSci defend this sort of thing.

But then some folks do work for data brokers. Data collected for an initial context can leak, be stolen or be sold on. It's still collected, it's still useful.

#DigitalPoppets

https://www.onepict.com/digitalpoppet.html

Fluconf 2026: Digital Poppets - How the Modern Fae Hold Power Over You

Show threadConnectednessGames3d ago

@cyberlyra

How many folks gave their #consent to train these systems?

Does #Niantic understand consent? Do they care?

Show threadCyberlyra3d ago
@connected Zero. Unless you count the people who clicked through when they said they were changing their terms of service retroactively.