this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go, and Probably All of Your Location Data (www.404media.co)
submitted 19 hours ago by fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
73 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/7yc9S

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[–] recentSloth43@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Obelix@feddit.org 7 points 26 minutes ago

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.

[–] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

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.

[–] DaveyRocket@lemmy.world 1 points 31 minutes ago

Anyone that groups individuals with their government is a bigot advertising their bigotry.

[–] KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 1 points 23 minutes ago

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

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 hours ago

Lol everyone owns your data except for you

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago

I guess I’m glad I had a windows phone during the Pokémon go craze

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Ah yes... "freedom" under capitalism means being owned by some disgusting oil tyrant.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 34 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Saudi Arabia? I remember about 10 or so years ago that Saudi Arabia had banned Pokemon because "it promotes materialism".

What changed?

[–] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] oxytocin@lemmy.world 27 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 14 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Yay, capitalism.

[–] SippyCup 11 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] Lootboblin@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

First sports washing and now game washing.

[–] FreddyNO@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Time to never use any of their products again

[–] clot27@lemm.ee 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

I am a level 47 player, altho havent played the game for several months now due to its downfall. Guess, wont be going back

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

But you were fine with Niantic? Why? They were an awful and evil company. Did you never look them up?

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think anyone playing a game in which the main mechanic is tracking your location is the type of person to look anything up.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Lol if anyone looked at my pokemon go data, they'd think I was some playboy with a private jet that visits Jakarta one day, and Tokyo the next. They also think I have insomnia and wander around in half mile circles all night. They think I have some insane government access when I visit chernobyl or tour the entirety of Italy right in the middle of their worst covid lockdowns.

I disassembled one of my phones and physically detached the extra antenna bits for the GPS, making it extremely unreliable, and a little aluminum foil on top can start to throw my location 500ft in a random direction.

Pokemon go provides direct feedback for gps spoofing in a way I haven't seen available anywhere else. The game isn't too fun, but learning where I can break GPS is a pretty fun game. The game of cat and mouse with Niantic detecting spoofers has been interesting to say the least.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 5 points 2 hours ago

I didn't understand how making your GPS more unreliable allowed you to be located in far away countries.

[–] DimlyLitFlutteringMoth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 146 points 19 hours ago (8 children)

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.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (8 children)

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?

[–] DimlyLitFlutteringMoth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] DimlyLitFlutteringMoth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Niantic and Google are (were?) not companies with very strong links to the Saudi Arabian government.

I've seriously reconsidered how much I use Google in recent months, but Google and Niantic aren't owned by a government that is incredibly repressive and discriminatory of people like myself.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

They are, however, owned by the people who own the government that is repressive and discriminatory to people like yourself.

It's all fair though, fuck Nazi Saudi and Nazi USA.

[–] DimlyLitFlutteringMoth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 7 hours ago

Yes, absolutely, which is why I'm moving away from those services. This just speeds things up in the case of PoGo since Saudi Arabia has has been much, much more blatant and apparent with this in prior years (c.f. The tragic case of Eden Knight).

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[–] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 74 points 18 hours ago (10 children)

Yet another good thing ruined by the Saudi government. Why can't we have nice things? :(

[–] Cerborealis@lemm.ee 11 points 12 hours ago

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.

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