IITC - Offically can it be used?
With the Global++ lawsuit in the works it makes one ask - Is IITC ok? The real question is - will Niantic ever officially sanction it as ok to use? It is used by a great number of players and Niantic seems to turn a blind eye to it whenever the question comes up. My guess is that most scripts you can add to IITC are ok but some like player tracker, may be why Niantic does not give it the official Okay. There are a few things in it that do not follow the TOS (Terms Of Service)
So - should Niantic saction IITC for official use or do IITC user continue to use it in the shadows and hope there is never a wave of IITC bans from Niantic? (I think that would be a tsunami.)
And if someone is lucky enough to get a question in on the next AMA please ask this one. I always seem to miss the window on AMAs.
Comments
If I remember correctly they hinted at some official recognition of IITC in the last months. Niantic knows that almost all players use IITC, and they just don't care. I guess it all depends about which plugins you have running, and how much data do you use.
Due to IITC nature, it's impossible for Niantic to officially consent all plugins, so, I guess you're using it at your own risk.
From what I know iitc is illegal, but as long as you mind your plugins, and try to not use ones not provided by iitc-makers, NIA won't interfere.
At your own risk.
I was told IITC player tracker only visualise information already available in Comm and Intell map. If you play Ingress, people can track your whereabouts. I really don’t get why people are so itchy about player tracker plug-in.
I don't like it personally because it's doing the work for you much more quickly than you could do it yourself. In particular it facilitates stalking.
So it comes down to no control of scripts that use data scraping to automate some processes and may give a player an unfair advantage? I wonder if Niantic has ever looked at buying out IITC. That way they could use it as an official companion app to replace the standard intel system. They could pick the scripts that they want to sanction and roll them in as functions to turn on and off. Then disable the ability to add user scripts and end up with an intel system many (or even most?) Agents are familiar with.
It would sure be nice to get a definate answer from them that matches their actions on the use of IITC. I have never heard of a player even getting a soft ban for IITC use.
@DeweyJ good idea:)
or they could change their own intel map to be fast like iitc and have more friendly interface to plan actions in game.
IITC is a rather grey area. In terms of altering the view of the map so you can see portal layout differently, or show only certain portal levels or what not, that's cool.
I rarely use IITC. It's very resource intensive to my devices. Frankly, the regular intel map is fine for me when I'm planning a course.
Global++ and IITC are very different issues. Global++ was changing the app to allow players to falsify their location. IITC is an alternative presentation of standard Intel.
I think it's incomprehensible that NIA has not yet found a way to ban Global ++ applications.
About IITC, I'm not sure it's legal and allowed, but if used judiciously it's only a more functional intel, the various plug-ins only make log data clearer.
Ultimately global ++ and iitc are two completely different things, with the first you can fly and steal, with the second you only save time on reading logs.
Niantic is suing the Global++ guys aggressively -- I'm optimistic they'll get shut down.
Buying out developers who violate the TOS is literally the stupidest thing a software company could do, because it gives other developers a clear financial inventive to violate the TOS.
They are shut down. https://torrentfreak.com/cheat-maker-shuts-down-after-being-sued-by-pokemon-go-creator-190617/
I never thought about encouraging those that break or "bend" the TOS by buying them out. I agree the Global ++ thing sounds like they were reverse engineering Niantic code and server calls etc. and were benefiting financially so they needed to be stopped. IITC on the other hand seems to be data scraping which was a big issue when the Brokers Guild was around. (Still around? I don't think so?)
All in all it is a tool that seems to live on the edge of the rules. It does not seem to be actively discouraged by Niantic yet every now and then you get a "don't do that" message but no slap on the wrist.
I'm of the mindset, while using IITC is technically breaking ToS, Niantic has been very aware of it for several years now, and if they really wanted to shut down its use, all they would have to do is develop a better Intel map. They are more than aware of the regular Intel map's limitations. Most IITC users would jump to a Niantic sanctioned alternative, if one existed.
Instead of wasting valuable development time making a new Intel map (when a reasonable alternative already exists), they're allowing IITC to exist until such time that they get around to updating the intel map.
The reason that they cannot outright sanction IITC for everyone is because of the plug-in functionality. You can design your own plug-ins to do any number of things. Niantic knows very well that they cannot sanction every single possible thing, so they're standing by and reacting only when a plug-in causes server distress (I've heard of soft-bans from overuse of certain IITC plugins), or when things like the Brokers Guild are revealed.
Basically, as far as IITC goes, I follow the Community Guidelines: Don't be rude and if you shouldn't be doing something, don't do it.
I hope IITC goes official, because too many players use it
I would use a Niantic/Official IITC "clone" instead of "stock intel." All day every day. Niantic should really just hire the dude to develop Intel Prime. Or re-develop Intel prime. Intel Prime should totally be the new branding.
But imo, IITC isn't breaking the TOS. Not even player tracker. It may bend the TOS... but not break. And both teams on anomaly day would be completely lost without IITC. This is a fact.
IITC is not recognised by Nia, so it is not legal to use, along with a long list of tg bots, although it is way easier to use than the regular Intel Map. It would be nice if Nia adjusted Intel in order to make it more similar to IITC... IITC drawing tools, for exemple, are fundamental if you want to make a field art: try to draw something on Intel please, it is impossible. However, I wouldn't support players saying that it is completely fine....
Its not a bad idea but is it possible? Considering that IITC is a script that runs on a browser plug-in (tamper ****) that runs scripts, how would they control scripts used in a plug-in that they don't have any control of?
The problem with IITC is that it fixes some severe usability problems with the regular intel map that Niantic themselves don't seem to be able to, or can be bothered to, fix.
Niantic also has included IITC in "official" Niantic media (like the Ingress reports they used to do) so make of that what you want.
Technically it's a third party tool and thusly a TOS problem.
IITC get really questionable when you get into the plugins, i.m.o.
Even some of the official ones like the player tracker. I'm aware it just uses agent activity that is reported to COMM and marks the map with it, but this doesn't change the fact it gives you insight the default map doesn't.
If some player grabs portal x, I don't immediately know where this is so it definately removes a layer of obfuscation. I think it's these kinds of features that keep Niantic from officially OK-ing this app.
Yesterday I was using it and got a warning.
Of course I was scared, checked the scanner and it seemed fine. Intel access was fine, and then reloaded the IITC modded intel, and got access as well.
Don't know what happened, it wasn't an official ban or a warning, might have been an error. Still got me scared tho
That was a bug that involved logging into Intel with a Google account, and not an actual warning. There were a bunch of threads on it yesterday. You're okay.