Niantic Social and privacy
This is a necro-post, in a way, the privacy concerns were raised last year during Niantic Social release. Some of the concerns were addressed, but not all. The reason I'm bringing up this stuff again - with "Referral System" being pushed in some games, and Catan coming eventually, I think we need to make sure privacy in Ingress is respected.
Just to refresh:
- "Niantic Social" appeared without agent permission (not opt-in),
- it displayed agent names to "friends" in other games (addressed, as opt-out)
- it displays agent level to "friends" in other games, it's sensitive information (not addressed)
- there is no setting to turn "Niantic Social" off, do not tell "friends" in other games about ingress (not addressed)
Essentially, the real solution was to predict it, and create separate accounts.
@NianticBrian first, I'd like to thank Ingress team for quick actions during that release. My question is, can other concerns be addressed? Can Ingress team have a setting and not release any details to other games? Or, this should be added to "how to smurf safely" guide, in addition to what info is revealed through comm and such, as "do not use the same account in other games"?
Old posts:
https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/11494/ingress-codename-on-your-niantic-profile
https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/11464/option-to-disable-niantic-social
Comments
Can you explain why a friend knowing your agent level is sensitive information? They are your friends, correct?
@holdthebeer Just so I understand:
You're playing a game that literally puts you on the map, tracks your location, shows other people where you are (most often: where you live and work and what your pattern of movement is) while freely giving this data to a company to store.
...and you're worried that your friends see what level you are?
This report from Kotaku is a long read, but well worth it to scare the bejesus out of you :)
https://kotaku.com/the-creators-of-pokemon-go-mapped-the-world-now-theyre-1838974714
Agent level is an example, it's one step away from the agent codename, which is considered sensitive enough to have it's own "hide codename" setting. There is more in one of the old posts I linked.
I get the irony behind "they are your friends, correct?" That's valid point, not adding random people from the internet is good advice, there is no need to fill the friend list to the top. However, you don't just tell everyone you meet about ingress, right?
I get the irony behind "they are your friends, correct?" That's valid point, not adding random people from the internet is good advice, there is no need to fill the friend list to the top. However, you don't just tell everyone you meet about ingress, right?
This is a key point though.
In PoGo, adding random friends and maxing out your Gifts every day is one of the primary levelling tactics. You don't just add friends, you add a lot of random strangers, many of which may be aligned with the opposite faction in Ingress.
Aligning those to games will require far more careful friendships for Gift levelling, if there's crossover of data.
That Kotaku report is scary, can't deny :) However, they focus on what data is collected by the company, and not on data visible to other players, friends or everyone. My point is, the visible data combined from different games reveals more patterns and details, that's where link between different games becomes "sensitive".
It's also largely a beat up faux-fear. Niantic does not and has never sold individual player data or locations. Aggregate data is used for marketing purposes ("This is how many people walk past your store every day and don't go in"), but as the article mentions but glosses over, Niantic will not sell your location data to anyone else outside of its own products.
It depends. They can be friends AND other faction.
Gonna chime in and voice my frustration.
i do not like the idea of a unified friend list across my games
why there is no option to warn us before they would plan to unify it?
now cauz of the lists being unified, i had to clear out a friend list on one of my games until that issue is sorted.
different games, different circles.....
It’s certainly weird to have both of the friend lists mashed together. As Ingress lacks any friend features at present I wonder if this will impact it at all.
Suppose more,people,will be requesting hpwu account deletions.....
I have mixed feelings about this but as a matter of fact I met players of both factions at Ingress events like First Saturday or anomalies and some of them quite often and I have added them to my Pokemon or WU friends list. I can separate the person from a role in a competitive game. Unfortunately I can't see any useful application of this type of friends list to Ingress unless we get some type of common enemy to fight (in raids).
Unless you're a cheater, this information is totally useless.