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Comment by 9dev | Hacker News Reader

Hiding shady or unexpected stuff in the TOS is illegal in the EU and other countries for example. So just because some companies behave amoral, that doesn’t mean we just have to accept hundreds of pages of legalese being able to dictate us.

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I don’t think there is something amoral here. Niantic explicitly sends players to take videos of places for rewards. It’s not like it’s done in a sneaky way.

Being somehow surprised they actually plan to do things with the data they have you gather is a bit weird.

No, it isn't. Stop normalizing this behavior. There was no consent. You expect that you are playing a game, not working for them for free.

I absolutely agree with you that this should not be the norm. The fact is that "they" absolutely do it and even give you "rewards" for your behaviour and actions in the free game. Reminds me of a certain opiod crisis, but now it is combining software with the human phyche almost directly.

Of course there was consent. There is even an explicit EULA listing in plain writing that you are actually collecting data for them that people have to agree to before playing.

That people suddenly wake up to the fact that they were dumb for providing labour for worthless virtual gifts doesn't magically allow them to claim it was abuse post-fact.

If people don’t read or understand the EULA, then it violates the spirit of the legislation (not to mention it’s plain shady). Consent must be voluntary (opt-in) and informed.

If you don’t read what you sign, it’s not uninformed consent. It’s you being an idiot.

You can spin this both ways. So if I include a 12,000 page EULA with my product, you're the idiot if page 8,172 includes a footnote that allows me to sell your data, but uses terms defined a few thousand pages earlier, so you actually have to read all of it?

You can play these shenanigans with businesses, but I for one am happy such behaviour is illegal here when selling to consumers.

Don’t use product with EULA you refuse to read. Then people will stop including them. Especially when it’s a game.

Anyway I’m all for outlawing the inclusion of predatory clauses in EULA but this is not one of this case.

People just want to have their cake and eat it to.

I assume you are reading all them EULAs of all products and services you use.

You were too lazy to read the rules of the game

Niantic have never made a secret of the fact that they're crowdsourcing to enrich their mapping data (eg data from Wayfarer and Ingress was used to seed Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite). I can't see it as a sudden gotcha, as it's practically their USP.

We don't have to accept it no, but also you shouldn't be dumbfounded when it happens. Always assume everyone is doing it.

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