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Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

nianticlabs.com

221–230 of 365 posts

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been saying this about Google Maps for years, especially their vast collection of public transport loading data and real time road speeds. People are duped into thinking they’re doing some “greater good” by completing the in-app surveys and yet the data they give back is for Google’s exclusive use and, in fact, deepens their moat.

IIRC Google maps basically does not make money. I wonder if there can be a government deal to subsidize it on the condition that the data be open sourced.

They made 11B$ last year. It has incredible amount of ads. If you haven't noticed, then that means they did a great job. (tip: look for the custom logo pins in the map. Its printing money)

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#222
post #193

We do this at [name redacted as this was a joke]. When users scan their barcode, the preview window is zoomed in so users think its mostly barcode. We actually get quite a bit more background noise typically of a fridge, supermarket aisle, pantry etc. but it is sent across to us, stored, and trained on. Within the next year we will have a pretty good idea of the average pantry, fridge, supermarket aisle. Who knows wh…

I’d be interested in how your privacy policy allows this. I can’t find where it mentions photos are stored or used for training purposes…

The MyFitnessPal privacy policy says "We use photos, videos, or other data you provide to us to customize our Services." [1]

That's all they need to do to cover themselves.

[1] https://www.myfitnesspal.com/privacy-policy

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#223

This title is editorialized. The real title is: "Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence" > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. My personal layman's opinion: I'm mostly surprised that they were able to do this. When I played Pokémon GO a few years back, the AR was so slow that I rarely used it. Apparently it's so popular and commo…

Many articles only make it to the front page because the submitted title was editorialized. The rules may say one thing, but the incentives are to a subtle balance between editorialization and avoiding flagging due to extreme editorialization with mods only stepping in to correct the title once it's gotten loads of upvotes and comments already.

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be interested in how your privacy policy allows this. I can’t find where it mentions photos are stored or used for training purposes…

The MyFitnessPal privacy policy says "We use photos, videos, or other data you provide to us to customize our Services." [1] That's all they need to do to cover themselves. [1] https://www.myfitnesspal.com/privacy-policy

The policy defines "Services" as the mobile app and website. How is building a general purpose model for what the average fridge looks like used to customise either the website or the app? This feels like the kind of flimsy reasoning that only holds so long as no one is challenging it.

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MyFitnessPal privacy policy says "We use photos, videos, or other data you provide to us to customize our Services." [1] That's all they need to do to cover themselves. [1] https://www.myfitnesspal.com/privacy-policy

The policy defines "Services" as the mobile app and website. How is building a general purpose model for what the average fridge looks like used to customise either the website or the app? This feels like the kind of flimsy reasoning that only holds so long as no one is challenging it.

Easy. They provide this new general purpose model through the website. Bam, that's a Service that uses photos to customize. They can also expand what counts as a Service unilaterally.

With this broad of a privacy policy, they can start MyFitnessPal.com/UncroppedCandidPhotos where they let people search for users by name, email, or phone and sell your photos to the highest bidder, and that still would count as a Service that uses photos to customize. You consented to it!

> This feels like the kind of flimsy reasoning that only holds so long as no one is challenging it.

No, it is written by professional lawyers to be as permissive as possible.

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#226
post #193

We do this at [name redacted as this was a joke]. When users scan their barcode, the preview window is zoomed in so users think its mostly barcode. We actually get quite a bit more background noise typically of a fridge, supermarket aisle, pantry etc. but it is sent across to us, stored, and trained on. Within the next year we will have a pretty good idea of the average pantry, fridge, supermarket aisle. Who knows wh…

This post’s replies makes it clear a lot of us don’t recognize humor. Do people really think MyFitnessPal is trying to build a model of the average pantry?

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#227
post #193

We do this at [name redacted as this was a joke]. When users scan their barcode, the preview window is zoomed in so users think its mostly barcode. We actually get quite a bit more background noise typically of a fridge, supermarket aisle, pantry etc. but it is sent across to us, stored, and trained on. Within the next year we will have a pretty good idea of the average pantry, fridge, supermarket aisle. Who knows wh…

This post’s replies makes it clear a lot of us don’t recognize humor. Do people really think MyFitnessPal is trying to build a model of the average pantry?

Who knows what is next

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#228
post #20

This is pretty cool, but I feel as a pokehunter (Pokemon Go player), I have been tricked into working to contribute training data so that they can profit off my labor. How? They consistently incentivize you to scan pokestops (physical locations) through "research tasks" and give you some useful items as rewards. The effort is usually much more significant than what you get in return, so I have stopped doing it. It's…

As the old adage goes, "if you're not paying for the product, you ARE the product"...

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#229
post #65

Not wanting to over-do it, but is there possibly an argument the data about geospatial should be in the commons and google have some obligation to put the data back into the commons? I'm not arguing to a legal basis but if it's crowdsourced, then the inputs came from ordinary people. Sure, they signed to T&Cs. Philosophically, I think knowledge, facts of the world as it is, even the constructed world, should be publi…

No. it should be owned by the owners of the land on which these objects are located. You should be able to provide access at different levels of detail to public or private entities that need said access and revoke it at your own will. May be make some money out of it.

3D artist can create a model of a space and offer rights to the owner of the land, who in turn can choose to create his own model or use the one provided by an artist.

Re: Niantic plans a “Large Geospatial Model” trained on Pokémon Go player data

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unsarcastically, a lot of people believe user data belongs to users, and that they should have a say in how it's used I can understand that people believe this, but why do they do? Nothing in our society operates in a way that might imply this.

> Nothing in our society operates in a way that might imply this. I beg your pardon? Consider just about any physical belonging — say, a book. When I buy a book, it belongs to me. When I read a book in my home, I expect it to be a private experience (nobody data-mining my eyeball movements, for example). This applies to all sorts of things. Even electronic things — if I put some files on a USB stick I expect them to…

> Consider just about any physical belonging — say, a book. When I buy a book, it belongs to me. When I read a book in my home, I expect it to be a private experience (nobody data-mining my eyeball movements, for example).

Perhaps this is just my own brain's degradation, but how far removed from society do you need to be to expect your purchases to not be sold to the highest bidder? This practice is certainly older than I am.

Forgive me if I cannot conceive of a consumer who has completely tuned out the last forty years of discourse about consumer protection. Hell, the credit bureaus themselves contradict the concept of consumer privacy.

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