Pokemon Go Hysteria Again Highlights How Media Is Happy To Be Gullible And Wrong -- If It Means More Ad Eyeballs
from the First!-(and-wrong) dept
If you spend any time online, you've by now noticed that the internet this week belched forth a tidal wave of incessant chatter over Pokemon Go, Nintendo's new augmented reality game involving scrambling around real-world locations to "catch" collectible, virtual beasts with your phone. The game is by any standard a smashing success, boosting Nintendo's market cap by an estimated $9 billion in two days with the app rocketing to the top of both major app stores. The phenomenon is, frankly, pretty amazing:Pokemon GO is just insane right now. This is in Central Park. It's basically been HQ for Pokemon GO. pic.twitter.com/3v2VfEHzNA
— Jonathan Perez (@IGIhosT) July 11, 2016
An ouroboros of phantoms chasing phantoms.
The media also stumbled all over itself to pounce on claims that the Pokemon Go app was a privacy nightmare, busily reading your e-mail and digging through an ocean of personal data that would any second now be in the hands of nefarious hackers. Most of these reports had to be subsequently walked back with updates after analysts actually bothered to study the app and reporters started (gasp) actually asking questions about just what the app was really doing:
"But in a call with Gizmodo, Reeve backtracked his claims, saying he wasn’t “100 percent sure” his blog post was true. On the call, Reeve also admitted that he had never built an application that uses Google account permissions, and had never tested the claims he makes in the post.While the app did appear to be asking for broader Google account permissions than was necessary (on iOS and less frequently on Android), both Google and app-maker Niantic issued a statement noting this was a bug they're busy fixing and that no personal information had actually been accessed:
Cybersecurity expert and CEO of Trail of Bits Dan Guido has also cast serious doubt on Reeve’s claim, saying Google tech support told him “full account access” does not mean a third party can read or send or send email, access your files or anything else Reeve claimed. It means Niantic can only read biographical information like email address and phone number."
"We recently discovered that the Pokémon Go account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user's Google account. However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your user ID and e-mail address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google account information, in line with the data we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go's permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves."And while a bug that gives broader permissions than necessary is bad, it was far from the "hacker's dream" and "privacy trainwreck" portrayed by dozens upon dozens of different outlets. Meanwhile, most of the data being collected is a fraction of the data being hoovered up and sold daily by your wireless carrier, something routinely forgotten by those laboring under the illusion that privacy in the cellular era still actually exists.
None of this is to say that many of the stories bubbling up amidst the Pokemon Go chaos aren't incredibly interesting. Watching police having to remind players that the laws of the state (and of reality) still apply while playing the game has proven pretty fascinating. Interesting too are conversations about whether African Americans and Muslim Americans will have a decidedly different and potentially unpleasant experience playing the game in the land of shoot first, think later law enforcement. But the most interesting story remains the meta narrative of a press so focused on profitability and being first that it couldn't give a flying Aerodactyl about actually being right.
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Filed Under: augmented reality, journalism, pokemon, pokemon go
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Circle of (Virtual) Life
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Re: Circle of (Virtual) Life
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Re: Circle of (Virtual) Life
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Once or twice a month for a while, you would hear a call go out on the police scanner, detailing a confused/suspicious person wandering around at odd hours with their phone out, the police would investigate, and you'd hear the saga end with "Just another Ingress player".
Some players get very aggressive about Ingress. Threats and stalking have been issues, (at a low level, the worst behavior gets the most attention, even if it's rare.)
Tomorrow I'm taking a gaggle of my eldest's friends out driving along the Columbia river, and Forest Park... and wherever else they wish to go on the hunt for rare pokemon.
The discussions about being aware of your surroundings and other people, cars, property will be nearly constant.
Something I've learned, I know the names of FAR too many Pokemon on sight, for a person who never played the games.
Be safe out there folks, Don't want your last thought to be "A wild Train uses Crush.... It's super effective!"
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Re:
From 'death by gps' we are going to 'death by pokemon'. I can't wait to see these stories pop up. Darwin Awards will get quite a few nominees this year!
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Every TD reader should be turning on their local scanner stream to enjoy the police running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
All those kids, (and Childlike adults ;) ) running around OUTSIDE like they own the place... It's a madhouse I tell you A MADHOUSE!!!
On the up side, as a regular scanner listener, I have to say I'm impressed by how calmly my local PD is handling the situation. Mostly people hear the screw ups that make the news... You don't hear about officers calling out other officers for being idiots over the radio.
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If you have Nintendo stock, sell it now before people get bored, don't want to pay 2 win or buy a $35 additional device to play.
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Where is the praise?
It's just a game, as long as people are not getting harmed it should be welcomed.
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Re: Where is the praise?
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(Yeah, I know he's not in this game yet, but it was obligatory!)
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eNTERTAINING.
A few hackers/advertisers/others..take advantage of it.
Then our Gov. wishes we did not have ANY privacy protections.
IF a person/compnay can get Enough BASIC information..
GPS
Cellphone tracking
and abit of other DATA..
They can SPOT and show every person in the Any nation..
What an advertising ADVANTAGE.. knowing your name and email, and the city you are in, and your EXACT location..Advert to you every local advert.
Knowing your location is GREAT for hackers also..and even Thieves.. Getting OTHER info on you, they can KNOW your SS# and Maybe even catch your CC#...
As a Thief...I would LOVE to know you have left home..as I already KNOW where you live, and the Economy of the area you are in..
As an Advertiser, I know you are going to get Pizza, and send you adverts for the Other restaurants in the area..
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Re: eNTERTAINING.
Maybe try italics instead of Random CAPITALIZATION making YOU LOOK like a timecube READING tinfoil Hatted NUTJOB.
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Is that the developer, Niantic inc, a spinoff of Google.
Is headed by John Hanke, who founded and was CEO of Keyhole Inc, acquired by Google.
Guess which three letter leniency funded Keyhole Inc through In-Q-Tel?
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As usual, this blog kind of sucks on the tech side of things.
When you develop apps like this for a platform, you are asked what permissions you want and given a very simple menu. Reckless and lazy developers simply don't bother to think about what they actually need and go with full-access or something otherwise over reaching, like how nearly every app wants access to your contacts or some such.
This is an endemic problem in app development. Sometimes it's done intentionally, because any kind of data could have big returns in the future. Usually it's done because developers don't want to think about it and don't care to think about consequences. There has been a big push for years to educate developers on how to do permissions properly. It's a major security and privacy issue in the software world.
At the very least, Niantic has been grossly negligent. Apps don't mis-function and accidentally grant full permissions, and marketplaces don't accidentally alter the settings. The permission settings are things the developers set.
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Re: As usual, this blog kind of sucks on the tech side of things.
They word they used was "erroneously" which means WRONG. Wrong can be introduced many ways.. some of them are just like you say... intentional or laziness.. they admit it's wrong, without blaming any cause, and they are going to fix it.
All that aside, I'm already tired of the stupid "game" and I've not even installed it, let alone played it.
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Re: As usual, this blog kind of sucks on the tech side of things.
The permissions are things the app developers set. But they really should be things the owner of the device sets.
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Re: As usual, this blog kind of sucks on the tech side of things.
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Poke and Go.. Crash Car... Nearly die
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Pokemon go trainers - Be careful
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What a prediction! 2 broke into Tiger exibit for Poke'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/duo-busted-breaking-zoo-while-153200541.html?nhp=1
and... 2 ‘Pokemon Go’ players plunge off cliff.. After climbing thru/over fences.
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/2-pokemon-go-players-plunge-off-cliff/
Stupid is as stupid does.
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Same in India
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Nice Piece Of Information
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great
Look, I do not play this pokemon go game, but why are these nuts not going gaga over the fact that it is now getting kids & young adults out into the public where they are expending energy and getting exercise?
It's just a game, as long as people are not getting harmed it should be welcomed and visit pokemon go hack no surveys .
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pokemon
The media also stumbled all over itself to pounce on claims that the Pokemon Go app was a privacy nightmare, busily reading your e-mail and digging through an ocean of personal data that would any second now be in the hands of nefarious hackers. Most of these reports had to be subsequently walked back with updates after analysts actually bothered to study the app and reporters started (gasp) actually asking questions about just what the app was really doing:
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awesome
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great
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cool
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