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relyks | on: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones
I stopped scanning pokestops because the effort has outweighed the rewards. A lot of the time, the requests show up as "research tasks" for a point of interest that I quickly passed by and have no interest in returning to, besides the tasks related to taking pictures of your buddy pokemon in augmented reality. Looks like I made the right choice by stopping. They do indicate to you up front that they will use the data, but it's still kind of terrible that you could be indirectly contributing to war efforts. I always assumed the data would be used for large world model training or simulations.
Cthulhu_ | parent | next
> I always assumed the data would be used for large world model training or simulations.

That was the initial objective, improving navigation by having people walk slowly on pedestrian accessible locations instead of only the main roads. But once that data is collated, it could go anywhere and you've signed any rights to what happens with it away when you agreed to the Ts & Cs.

Utilera | parent | next
That's what makes this feel so off
christoph | root | parent
My 8 year old LOVES Pokemon Go, and we regularly go to a local meet up which is a fascinating microcosm of people of all ages from all walks of life. We’ve met some great people and had some incredible conversations, but I really struggle to see how we can continue in good faith now.

I seriously loath, hate & despise everything about this digital panopticon world being constructed around us.

fragmede | root | parent
The data isn't guns though. Guns aren't a dual use technology that have a nonviolent purpose. Data is. The same data that trains military drones can also be used to train the robot that will bring food to grandma when she's so old that she can't walk up the stairs anymore.
diydsp | root | parent | next
They don't have equal weight.

Even 100s of yummy grandma-cheeseburgers is not worth feeding private data brokers detailed maps of our own communities.

Nowadays some of them are just as likely to sell the data to the other side.

Nowadays the other side may get access to them without us even knowing.

sciencejerk | root | parent
Nowadays the other side may get access to them without us even knowing.

Yep... collecting domestic geo data is a double-edged sword.

huijzer | root | parent | next
> The data isn't guns though. Guns aren't a dual use technology that have a nonviolent purpose.

Counterexample, guns could be a (non-violent) hobby. I’m not pro guns or violence but just pointing out the logical issue here

newsclues | root | parent
Shooting guns for target practice is fun and non violent.

Guns feed families and protect people too.

They are dual use like all tech from knives to nukes.

slumberlust | root | parent | next
Peel a potato with your glock and ill buy your pedantry.
fragmede | root | parent
I bet the targets don't feel like they're non-violent. The animal that was killed for food doesn't think anything, because it's dead. That's pretty violent. Shooting someone that attacking you in defense was necessary, but it's definitely violent.

All uses of guns are violent. That's what they do. They make holes in things that didn't have holes in them before. There are uses for them that are justified but they're always violent. This isn't an anti-gun screed, this is a words-mean-things rant. Violence is necessary and justified in various situations, which means guns are necessary and justified in various situations, but if you're going to say they're not violent, I can't agree.

jstanley | root | parent | next
If making holes in things that didn't have holes in them before is a sufficient condition for "violence", does that make drills violent too? Or is that taking words-mean-things too far?

Or perhaps can we accept that it is possible to make holes in things without doing violence, and that an object that can make holes in things is not inherently a violent object even though it would be violent if you made holes in things like people or animals, or in property without permission.

throw-the-towel | root | parent
Listening to my neighbours drill every morning certainly does feel violent.
newsclues | root | parent
Your words are violence.

Targets are inanimate objects I’m fine with being violent against them just like I’m fine with farting on my chair!

Even if all uses of weapons are violence, sometimes violence is justified. If you disagree happy to violently rob you and disabuse you of your stupid ideas.

Opinions of people who lived sheltered lives are so divorced from reality

vigilantpuma | root | parent
They literally said, "Violence is necessary and justified in various situations, which means guns are necessary and justified in various situations"
cmg | parent | next
The closest stop to me is between a dog park and a school - scanning it would have been an awkward situation, to say the least. And as you said, for rewards that aren't worth it. I got used to having that "Scan" task just sitting at the top of my list, never to be touched. But I noticed earlier this week that it's gone - and scanning stops doesn't give a new scan task.
RobotToaster | parent
I believe some of the data was added to their scaniverse app.

I guess this also explains how they were paying for the free 3d model photogrammetry processing that app does.