Lesley Carhart 1d ago
This is kind of a silly take. Niantic are absolutely opportunists, who certainly didn’t see AI coming when Pokémon Go or Ingress premiered. What they’ve always been interested in is being a *source of user geolocation data* which they can monetise. First way was lucrative Pokémon IP. Now it’s AI.
Show threadQuinn Norton1d ago

@hacks4pancakes I'm really not sure how the data from Pokemon go gets you much that you don't get from tower data. Sure, it's sensitive data, but it's a subset of various other kinds of sensitive data everyone is already leaking.

It's certainly less data than LE get through telecom portals, or companies buy off providers. Feels like Niantic is playing bad guy to get cash for selling mostly redundant data.

Show threadThe Doctor1d ago
@quinn @hacks4pancakes Folks are leaking that data, yes. But they weren't in a fashion that could be captured and monetized, so that had to happen.
Show threadQuinn Norton
@drwho @hacks4pancakes a lot of this data as been sold by telecoms for a long time though. you know, "anonymized"
5:31pmWeb
Show threadThe Doctor5h ago

@quinn @hacks4pancakes ...with all of the fields in place and untouched.

But that was under NDA.