3 ms·

Is this a game purely for entertainment or a vehicle for gathering mobile data?

userbinator 12y ago
Google officially denies it, but I neither play it nor have read the ToS, so it wouldn't be surprising if they were using your location data for something else. If they were, it's certainly a clever and unique way of doing it.
- personZ 12y ago
  https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/ https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/ Google makes no bones about continually recording your location history, and they certainly don't need Ingress for that. They use the location history for predicatively estimating your trips, etc.
  - ljk 12y ago
    not to be that guy, but just because it doesn't show your locations on a web page does not mean Google's not keeping track of it, right?
    - sp332 12y ago
      Google might add you to some anonymized dataset, but I doubt they would track you like that if you didn't opt-in. (Facebook, I wouldn't even trust that far.) But you have to opt-in to this to access certain Google services, so people might not realize how much location data Google is using. You can't just turn it on for certain apps, it's all or nothing.
sp332 12y ago
It gathers tons of data. "Players in less well-covered areas can also suggest that landmarks of interest to them should become new game portals by snapping a geotagged photo with their smartphone." http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628936.200-why-googles-ingress-game-is-a-data-gold-mine.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628936.200-why-googl... "Through this process, Google is collecting vast amounts of pedestrian data, average walking speed, routes taken, pictures, and even Wi-Fi hotspots available." http://www.applieddatalabs.com/content/hidden-side-ingress http://www.applieddatalabs.com/content/hidden-side-ingress Look at Niantic's previous game, Field Trip: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.scout https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticpro...

Google officially denies it, but I neither play it nor have read the ToS, so it wouldn't be surprising if they were using your location data for something else. If they were, it's certainly a clever and unique way of doing it.

personZ 12y ago
https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/ https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/ Google makes no bones about continually recording your location history, and they certainly don't need Ingress for that. They use the location history for predicatively estimating your trips, etc.
- ljk 12y ago
  not to be that guy, but just because it doesn't show your locations on a web page does not mean Google's not keeping track of it, right?
  - sp332 12y ago
    Google might add you to some anonymized dataset, but I doubt they would track you like that if you didn't opt-in. (Facebook, I wouldn't even trust that far.) But you have to opt-in to this to access certain Google services, so people might not realize how much location data Google is using. You can't just turn it on for certain apps, it's all or nothing.

sp332 12y ago

It gathers tons of data. "Players in less well-covered areas can also suggest that landmarks of interest to them should become new game portals by snapping a geotagged photo with their smartphone." http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628936.200-why-googles-ingress-game-is-a-data-gold-mine.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628936.200-why-googl... "Through this process, Google is collecting vast amounts of pedestrian data, average walking speed, routes taken, pictures, and even Wi-Fi hotspots available." http://www.applieddatalabs.com/content/hidden-side-ingress http://www.applieddatalabs.com/content/hidden-side-ingress Look at Niantic's previous game, Field Trip: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.scout https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticpro...