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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 23 2016, @08:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the camera+GPS=knowing-most-everything dept.

This data-mining game is what they call totalitarianism is how Oliver Stone described Pokémon Go at Comic Con. Earlier in the month Al Franken also expressed some concern asking the creator of the game about privacy, data sharing, and account access.

More from Stone:

They're data-mining every person in this room for information as to what you're buying, what you like, and above all, your behaviour. Pokémon Go kicks into that. But this is everywhere. It's what some people call surveillance capitalism. It's the newest stage. It's not for profit in the beginning, but it becomes for profit in the end.

It manipulates your behaviour. It has happened already quite a bit on the Internet, but you'll see it everywhere—you'll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society, where they will know how you want to behave and they will make the mockup that matches how you behave and feed you. It's what they call totalitarianism.

Personally I gave up my smart phone more than two years ago because I did not want a spy machine in my pocket; I've never played Pokémon Go but it seemed like a great way for the game creators to get people to run around and point the players camera at what ever they want, obtain other location based data, or focus players into businesses that pay for the privilege. Perhaps I just need to adjust my tinfoil hat but what do the 'lentils think? Is Stone just trying to plug his new movie or is this a legitimate concern?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday July 23 2016, @12:23PM

    by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Saturday July 23 2016, @12:23PM (#379025) Homepage Journal

    They used to be a lot better than they are now - something's changed. In the top recommendations on my account it has been listing items that have a low rating like someone forgot to grep out the results that the likeability estimator came up with. And for some odd reason every (or what seems like it) Netflix created show that bubbles up into my suggestions has 5 stars and has no relation to how much I'll care for the show.

    I agree with the feedback system being sufficient because it did a great job and the Netflix X prize for increasing the accuracy of the predictor was one of the greatest things I've seen a tech company do. Now it looks like marketing got ahold of it and is using it to shove crap down people's throats. Such a shame.

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  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:22PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:22PM (#379377)

    Now it looks like marketing got a hold of it and is using it to shove crap down people's throats. Such a shame.

    This sort of thing is becoming pervasive. YouTube is now flooded with right wing conspiracy (Infowars and such crap) videos that pop up in every recommended videos feed. They are either paying for placement or somehow gaming the system.

    • (Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:59PM

      by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:59PM (#379386) Homepage Journal

      YouTube is now flooded with right wing conspiracy (Infowars and such crap) videos that pop up in every recommended videos feed.

      Hmmmm I wasn't sure if this was a local experience for you or if I was really good at filtering that crap out with out knowing it. I just checked some recommended videos in Youtube and still didn't see anything I noticed was even political. But this was in there [youtube.com].

      Course all I really do with Youtube is watch PBS SpaceTime, the weekly Last Week Tonight topic, and as of yesterday the best worst cocktail shaker ever [youtube.com]

      • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday July 27 2016, @08:57PM

        by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Wednesday July 27 2016, @08:57PM (#380886)

        Hmmmm I wasn't sure if this was a local experience for you or if I was really good at filtering that crap out with out knowing it.

        Funny, the day after I typed this they were gone, but just for a day or so and they have returned. Do you log in? I don't, so nothing is being filtered by my preferences other than whatever YouTube does with the videos I'm watching that day. I also only allow the minimum scripts necessary to view videos.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:39AM

          by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:39AM (#381009) Homepage Journal

          Do you log in? I don't, so nothing is being filtered by my preferences other than whatever YouTube does with the videos I'm watching that day.

          I do not authenticate with google when using youtube, even when videos require it. The results are still filtered through a system that takes into account the physical location of the viewer - you might be able to change the behavior if you can look at it from different IP addresses. I wonder if they also keep a list of all the tor exit nodes and filter just for them instead of the exit node's physical location.

          My google text search results like to pre-populate with questions about weird racial stereotypes - I also live in an area that is full of racists. The racists are usually pretty ignorant though but I guess everyone can use the Internet now.

          • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:09PM

            by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:09PM (#381306)

            The results are still filtered through a system that takes into account the physical location of the viewer - you might be able to change the behavior if you can look at it from different IP addresses

            Interesting. Occasionally my location will show as a town many miles away rather than local. I wonder if that is why those videos disappeared for a short time.