Pokémon GO was an intelligence tool, claims Belarus • The Register (www.theregister.com)
from sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to technology@beehaw.org on 12 Sep 2024 11:30
https://lazysoci.al/post/17441038

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Zagorath@aussie.zone on 12 Sep 2024 12:25 collapse

It literally was though. Not a military intelligence tool, but a big business intelligence one.

Niantic was founded by Google and their first product, Field Trip, and their first game, Ingress (a much better-designed game than Pokémon Go, btw) were pretty obviously about gaining geolocation data for Google to improve their products like Maps and Shopping.

borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 2024 13:15 next collapse

Oh man, Ingress was such a better game. I got slightly obsessed with it for a year or two. I had my entire state covered for a couple of days, before one of the nodes or whatever was broken.

Kalkaline@leminal.space on 12 Sep 2024 13:15 collapse

Even now they have tools like Scaniverse that create 3D stitches of the space around you that they’ve incorporated into the game. And yeah, Ingress was and is a better game, even if the new UI is annoying.