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Virtual gossip monsters

Pokémon Go: The app that makes people run around with a handheld surveillance camera.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

I walk down the street and suddenly notice that everyone is watching me. Have you also had this creepy dream? A lady in red dress stops where she comes walking, pushing on a stroller with a babbling young man upstairs, and they both stare at me until I turn and take another path. But people keep watching – even a trembling old man tries to get up just to look at me.

This Orwellian feeling creeps into me when I think of Pokémon Go – the little game where you catch fun little characters. The game that actually makes kids get up off the couch and move around. A lot of information is also collected about the players – something they may not be aware of. In addition, users of the popular app often film while playing, and then post the movies online.

Data collection. The company behind the game, Niantic, shares certain collected information with third parties: "We may share collected information and non-identifying information with third parties for research, demographic profiling and similar purposes," the privacy policy published at www.nianticlabs.com states. Among other things, Niantic collects information via "base station triangulation, wifi triangulation and / or GPS". This type of information does not identify you as a person and can therefore be shared with third parties.

PokemonGO3What can a third party do with that type of information? Let's say that Google is the third party and receives this non-identifying information from Niantic. If you use Google products like Gmail and Hangouts, Google already has lots of information about you. Some of us have also used their Google Account to register as Pokémon Go players (the other options are to use a Facebook account or a Pokémon Trainer Club account). If a player has used their Google Account to register with Pokémon Go, Google can already analyze the player's age and interests, as well as where he or she is, without the need for systematic data from Niantic. Google tracks what you are interested in using Google Search if you allow Google to download your search for marketing purposes. They also know where you are at any time if you have logged into your account and have the location service on your phone turned on.

So Google has lots of information about you – but they don't know what you're doing in the various places you are. This is where the information from Niantic comes into the picture: It reveals where people are og what they do (namely playing Pokémon Go).

Complements the image. Information about when, where, how long and how often a person plays Pokémon Go also shows this person's actual behavior. This information is extremely valuable. The challenge you face when dealing with marketing and advertising today is to pimple audience. You cannot sell your product on TV, as in the old days, if the target audience, for example, watches on demand TV and cut out the advertisement. The big question in our media reality is where the target audience is located when.

It scares me that we obviously normalize being filmed publicly and that footage is shared online.

The information Google receives from Niantic shows them what kind of people are playing Pokémon Go through their Google account – as well as when and where they do it. They can analyze the group down to smaller and more precise devices using location, age and credit card information (which they have information from via the Google Play Store).

We may feel safe when Niantic and other companies only share non-identifying information with third parties – but these third parties can rely on a lot of information about us before. The non-identifying information may be the last bit needed in the puzzle to give a complete picture of who we are and what we do. Exactly that may not be all.

Filming and publishing. Pokémon Go books not only provide large amounts of information about themselves – they also collect and disseminate information about others. Filming and online sharing of the game sessions takes place everywhere. These videos contain identifying information such as license plates, shops and people passing by. It is not permitted to photograph or film a person – or identifying information about a person – for commercial purposes, but we do so all the time nonetheless. I came across a post on Facebook with the following headline: "For those of you who want to know how to make recordings of your POKÉMON GO journey, post it on YouTube and MAKE MONEY on it !!!" – and YouTube is full of videos showing game sessions.

In theory, one must have permission to use any identifiable person in a commercial context. How many of the users – many of whom are children – are aware of it?

What bothers me the most is how normal it is to film others and share this information. Some players can use these videos to make money, others not. In any case, personal information about others is posted online, accessible to everyone. Pokémon Go itself had never been allowed to film, store and distribute gaming sessions to a third party.

There is some skepticism about the number of surveillance cameras in public places. In the United Kingdom, for example, there is one camera per eleventh inhabitant. Now, each of us can film people in the public room and share the footage with absolutely everyone. The surveillance cameras serve at least one purpose – to catch criminals – and the footage is not posted on YouTube.

Long jump. Now maybe the reader thinks I'm exaggerating. But Pokémon Go is the first game of its kind to have become a giant, a farce that spread quickly within a few days. More and more companies will want to make use of the opportunities that exist in so-called augmented reality. This is an invention that is spreading fast. Camera in glasses and watches will soon be a part of daily life. Therefore, it scares me that we are obviously normalizing it to be filmed in public, and that the footage is shared online. That's a pretty long leap from how we problematized surveillance cameras a few decades ago.

Strengthen the legislation? I can choose to prioritize my privacy over entertainment, and simply avoid using apps like Pokémon Go – but that doesn't solve the problem of other people filming and disseminating information about others. Individuals' control over their own identifying information has been drastically reduced with the Pokémon Go fever. The number of people recording in the public space has increased significantly, and is going to increase further for each new app that uses augmented reality – unless we strengthen the privacy laws.

When it comes to inventions that are new to the public and used by children, we cannot expect people to take in all the consequences of using them on their own. Platforms that allow you to share videos that violate your privacy or can be used for commercial purposes without the necessary permissions should delete all videos where other people or identifying information is displayed. They should also create guidelines where users are asked not to post that type of movie. It should not be necessary to slowly progress to sound practices when the general privacy policy is already clear.


Visser is a specialist in Big Data, and works in Berlin.
info@studio-anrikevisser.com

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