Comment by 9dev
13 days ago
Hiding shady or unexpected stuff in the TOS is illegal in the EU and other countries for example. So just because some companies behave amoral, that doesn’t mean we just have to accept hundreds of pages of legalese being able to dictate us.
I don’t think there is something amoral here. Niantic explicitly sends players to take videos of places for rewards. It’s not like it’s done in a sneaky way.
Being somehow surprised they actually plan to do things with the data they have you gather is a bit weird.
No, it isn't. Stop normalizing this behavior. There was no consent. You expect that you are playing a game, not working for them for free.
Of course there was consent. There is even an explicit EULA listing in plain writing that you are actually collecting data for them that people have to agree to before playing.
That people suddenly wake up to the fact that they were dumb for providing labour for worthless virtual gifts doesn't magically allow them to claim it was abuse post-fact.
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I absolutely agree with you that this should not be the norm. The fact is that "they" absolutely do it and even give you "rewards" for your behaviour and actions in the free game. Reminds me of a certain opiod crisis, but now it is combining software with the human phyche almost directly.
You were too lazy to read the rules of the game
Niantic have never made a secret of the fact that they're crowdsourcing to enrich their mapping data (eg data from Wayfarer and Ingress was used to seed Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite). I can't see it as a sudden gotcha, as it's practically their USP.
We don't have to accept it no, but also you shouldn't be dumbfounded when it happens. Always assume everyone is doing it.