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 21 hours ago by fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
80 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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

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[–] recentSloth43@lemmy.world 14 points 3 hours 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 21 points 3 hours 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 15 points 3 hours 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 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

there are cases where this is more or less true. I think the less democratic/representative and more oppressive a government, the less fair it is to group a people with their regime. the saudis have an absolute monarchy that bone-saws journalists in foreign countries.

which probably fucks up their culture something awful, but not in the same ways their government is monstrous.

[–] DaveyRocket@lemmy.world 3 points 45 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago) (1 children)

I guess I’m pretty suspicious of all states and the control they exert over the average person to use that metric. It’s my opinion that if democracy worked, it’d be illegal (or subverted by a CIA-backed coup).

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 39 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes ago)

well, yes. I don't think a government can completely align with the values of the people it dominates, they are inherently shitty, but shittiness is a spectrum.

and yes, that is what the CIA is for. that, and cocaine trafficking.

[–] KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 1 points 2 hours 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

[–] Mamba@lemm.ee 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 hours ago

Lol everyone owns your data except for you

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee -3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

“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

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 36 points 8 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 5 points 3 hours 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 28 points 8 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.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

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

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 16 points 9 hours ago (6 children)

Yay, capitalism.

[–] SippyCup 13 points 7 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

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[–] Lootboblin@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

First sports washing and now game washing.

[–] FreddyNO@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Time to never use any of their products again

[–] DimlyLitFlutteringMoth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 151 points 21 hours ago (18 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 14 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 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 17 points 9 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 12 hours ago (2 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.

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[–] clot27@lemm.ee 8 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 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 11 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 5 points 9 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 6 points 7 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 5 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I thought the break would suggest two separate ideas, but in a sense it does help. Some spoofing can start 'rubber banding' between the spoofed location and the actual location, and if youre spoofing 1000 miles away, thats an insant soft ban. but if your phone never gets a proper fix on like 5 GPS satellites, you won't rubber band.

I mostly used the damaged GPS phone to idly increase walking distance. If I set it to charge in a basement my character just bounces all around the outside of the house and I can wake up to a cool 10km walked. There's better options for fake walking though.

If you're interested in GPS spoofing, you can find a wealth of information by searching for 'gps spoofing' with 'pokemon go' tacked on the end. It takes an idea that otherwise makes you sound like a paranoid person and turns it into just cheating at a videogame.

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