Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go, and Probably All of Your Location Data
A company owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund just bought the most popular AR video game of all time.
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/7yc9S
Oh man.. probably should have passed laws to regulate data harvesting and digital privacy back in the 90s
when the Internet was still just a series of tubes...
Oh no, not only the very ethical American companies get my data?
What a disaster.
Wait until you find out that Saudi Arabia have a big stake in Disney, Facebook and OpenAI.
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Remember when the US was going to make them into a "pariah state"?
Thinks changed quickly when you could sell them $350,000,000,000 worth of murder stuff didn't it?
Made a lot less waves back then.
Priorities I guess.
I’d imagine this isn’t going to stop anyone from using it though.
I'm a level 50 Pokémon Go player, who has played since release day, and that's the app deleted.
Next up will be requesting removal of my data under GDPR.
Yet another good thing ruined by the Saudi government. Why can't we have nice things? :(
Pokémon GO hasn’t been good for a long time, sadly. The game was peak during the pandemic before Niantic absolutely turned it into a dumpster fire.
Orna does a much better job of scratching that GPS RPG itch for me, and it’s a better game in every way.
Just wait until the "sovereign fund" trump is starting puts up assets like "former national park", "federal water rights", "state and federal timber land"..it's all just an asset to be plundered to him. A hotel company to flip.
Were you unaware of the last 10 years of Niantec/Google openly admitting that they were using camera and location data to train their models? Were you blinded by the fun of the game? Or did you just think the data you were uploading wasn’t that important?
Yes, I was aware though under the impression of improving geospatial and mapping models. There are many ways in which we are now entwined into these systems and so it's a matter of deciding, on a personal level, what you are comfortable with.
I am certainly not comfortable with the data going to Saudi Arabia where access to such is used for active suppression and harm.
Maybe it was a naive viewpoint at the time, but the climate of 2016 was very different to what it is now.
I don't usually buy the "but it's ok if the company is American!!!" accusations because no corporation should be abusing your privacy, but I was just sitting here wondering why they think it is suddenly not ok if a foreign company is the one harvesting data.
I remember it being pretty big news when it was revealed, with government agencies making the app forbidden for their employees.
Lol, but you were fine with Niantic collecting your data??
Goodness. Just... Goodness.
Location data? Yeah, naively I was since I'd previously been fine with Niantic's work with Ingress. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
I've tried some of scopely's games. They're following this playbook to the letter.
You'll be getting freebies when your friends spend cash. You'll get time limited offers. You'll be paying to "try again", against other players.
Who wins when a wall street broker and an oil sheikh use their wallets to fight over a Pokémon gym? Scopely wins.
Scopely games are just a bunch of mixed dark patterns reskinned with some popular IP
Good video. Nailed a lot of game behavior.
Saudi Arabia? I remember about 10 or so years ago that Saudi Arabia had banned Pokemon because "it promotes materialism".
What changed?
Money.
After MBS became the de-facto leader (after some purges, to centralize all the power to himself) he started "liberalizing" and giving us more freedoms. It's all bullshit.
Women weren't even allowed to drive four years ago. That was probably the only good thing he gave us.
Haven't played the game in years, and wasn't aware of any of this. People discussing "What's worse, Saudi Arabia or Niantic?" feels positively dystopian.
Saudi Arabia isn't a person. I hate it when news titles aren't specific enough. Is it the government that bought them? A private company? Just a dude that happens to be Saudi? The implications can change drastically based on who bought it.
Also the article link isn't working for me so all i got is the title. And as most people that'd see it, they'd also only read the title, this type of simplification can lead to a lot of misinformation. Or worse, racism, as you combine a whole country and its people to one entity which is dehumanizing. I'm speaking from experience as a Saudi person who's always grouped with the "saudi" or "Arabic " or "brown" groups instead of another human being.
In short, news should stop generalizing and be more specific, especially in the titles, the part that most people will interact with.
Saudi Arabia isn’t a person.
Yes, it is. In an autocratic monarchy, in a dictatorship, everything belongs to the king. The house of Saud is treating the country as their personal property and let's not pretend that anything would prevent the guy who killed a journalist in his embassy from accessing that data.
unpaywalled: https://archive.is/7yc9S
A Saudi Arabian company that was created by the Saudi Arabian government just purchased Pokémon Go
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Investment_Fund
If you can't see the article i will paste it for you.
I'm speaking from experience as a Saudi person who's always grouped with the "saudi" or "Arabic " or "brown" groups instead of another human being.
So am i, and i'm also sick of it and the people who use this to fuel discrimination. I see this article as more of a reason to hate the sauds, not saudi people.
I mean, if it's in Saudi Arabia you know the royal family is in full control, so in this it kind of makes sense
Yay, capitalism.
The scene in Austin Powers when he first comes out of cryo and assumes the communists won the cold war makes a lot more sense to me as an adult
Really feeling that free market...
https://media.tenor.com/0BkvWV1SdzEAAAAM/dyinginside-suffering.gif
I guess I'm going back to not walking.
StreetComplete helps improve OpenStreetMap.
Great app, I recommend everyone give it a try
Currently in closed beta.
Was just about to post this! Been in the closed beta since January. Usually checking into the app before I leave for work/home or on the bus.
Moving over to another proprietary location data hoarder is not really a good solution, though.
Location Data. We collect location data such as information about your device's location, which can be either precise or imprecise. How much information we collect depends on the type and settings of the device you use to access the Services. For example, we may use GPS and other technologies to collect geolocation data that tells us your current location (based on your IP address). You can opt out of allowing us to collect this information either by refusing access to the information or by disabling your Location setting on your device. However, if you choose to opt out, you may not be able to use certain aspects of the Services.
Maproulette.Org it's built to give you challenges around you that help improve and add to open street maps.
Lol everyone owns your data except for you
Time to never use any of their products again
I am a level 47 player, altho havent played the game for several months now due to its downfall. Guess, wont be going back
Just curious what they end up doing with any of the location data?
Ask Jamal Khashoogshi
*Khashoggi
I'd assume same thing they did with the data from Xitter. Track down arab dissidents and butcher them, then dissolve their remains in acid so no one can find their corpse.
Probably throw planes at you.
First sports washing and now game washing.
I guess I’m glad I had a windows phone during the Pokémon go craze
A country that investing in any successful product doesn't mean they want your data. If they are interested they can buy it directly from any large organization and if must they can use spy ware or other means of intelligence.
If you have privacy concern, you have bigger issue than a game that is for all we know is dying game.
Ah yes... "freedom" under capitalism means being owned by some disgusting oil tyrant.
Saudi Govt: So MbS, what are we doing this week?
MbS: Well, first we’re gonna buy Pokémon Go, and if THAT goes well, then we’ll try to negotiate peace for Ukraine.
Saudi Govt: Priorities, Crowned Prince Mohammed. 💪
Scopely is the company that bought Pokemon Go (and others). Scopely was not created by the Saudi Arabian Government as the article states. It was created in the US. But was purchased by Savvy Games (A Saudi Arabian company) in 2023. It still operates independently and is based in the US. Though I do admit they probably report up all the way. Scopely is also the developer of Monopoly Go.
A developer made Monopoly Go? All I need to know about them.
I'm glad I never played that game. Call me old fashioned but I prefer the original Pokemon games on the Gameboy, that's all I ever played. It was fun going to friends' houses and gatherings and trading Pokemon over Link cable. Fun times.
“Arab country bad”
Edit: the downvotes just prove my point, as if it matters if an Arab country you are likely to never visit had your location data or not.
While I have your attention, check your propaganda
Or probably not as I have never played the game.. I'm still annoyed by this headline format.
Can you prove this is worse than an insideous, shitty company like Niantic? No. No you cannot.
FUCK Niantic, and fuck this xenophobic noise.
Yes I can. Saudi Arabia is where modern slavery still happens. Women have no rights. The country funds proxy wars in the Middle East. Everyone who's rich in that country is rich through exploiting oil, religion, terrible work conditions, or some combination of all the above. The only other country that out-does them on this front is The United Arabic Emirates.
A succesful company in that country would be party to all those things. Giving money to such a company would be giving money in support of all these things, as the money you give them becomes part of their economy. Pokemon GO would only be bought by any company because they see the potential of it becoming a money printing machine.
Being critical =/= xenophobic.
