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Comment by hadi121 | Hacker News Reader

What's the "evil" part?

Probably https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/pokemon-go-players-unwitt...

Then again you produce public open-source data when you contribute to OSM, and nothing prevents the military from using it for morally questionable purposes... at the end of the day the only difference is the intermediary that could make a profit selling the data, no?

well, I sure don't get to have access to all the pokémon data even if I ask very nicely, do I? I'd think that's a (related but important) difference

I was questioning the qualification of Pokemon Go being "evil" here, it's the data broker and the military who are evil in this case in my opinion. (Making it open-source also doesn't help, as I said we'd only short-circuit the intermediary who sold this data).

Maybe it's a useless nuance, but I don't think Pokemon Go gamers should feel/evil or even that they should be careful the next time they try to entertain themselves.

No, the huge difference is creating the good part. Where is the open data for the general public created from Pokemon GO? You can't stop the military using open data but that is on them. The evil is them getting your private data to have an exclusive advantage people have no control or transparency over.

I was talking about a difference for the bad outcome in this case... if Pokemon Go was open souce and public, the military could have done the same, for that matter the might be doing the same with OSM data to some extend right now and it would be harder to know about it.

Open-source software and data are obviously public goods I support. I was just pointing out that the only "evil" parts here are rent seekers reselling this data and the military... not the people assembling the data (players).

You have no idea what they are selling though. You can ask to get bad things removed from Open Street Maps. It isn't just the money making aspect it's the secrecy too.

If StreetComplete starts asking road width and loading capacity for bridges and viaducts... start to get suspicious :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqzwsM6eoQ

Street complete does load width - it can be quite useful for example for the fire fighters. They can try to plot some routes based on OSM data, then check if the narrow places are actually there and reach out to the city to address them, so their fire engines can get through.

That's a fair use for the data, but it would be hilarious if StreetComplete asked users to get a trundle wheel and measure the width of roads around embassies or seats of government...

There's a companion app, StreetMeasure, that uses Google's AR measuring capability on compatible phones. Personally, I carry a laser distance measure.

how am i just hearing about this, wow

[Surprised Pikachu Face]

Niantic would sell your children’s social security numbers if they thought they’d get away with it.

Every business would sell your actual children if they could.

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