{"id":104302,"date":"2024-12-14T12:07:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T12:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/pokemon-go-saved-helga-when-she-got-lost-in-the-forest-news-norway-overview-of-news-from-different-parts-of-the-country\/"},"modified":"2024-12-14T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T12:07:16","slug":"pokemon-go-saved-helga-when-she-got-lost-in-the-forest-news-norway-overview-of-news-from-different-parts-of-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/pokemon-go-saved-helga-when-she-got-lost-in-the-forest-news-norway-overview-of-news-from-different-parts-of-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Go saved Helga when she got lost in the forest – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This summer, game researcher Helga Dis Isfold Sigurdardottir got lost in a mountain forest in Spain with her husband and a friend. The forest was full of small paths that were not visible on Google Maps, so they could not find their way back. There can be several reasons for this. Google Maps mainly uses cars and motorcycles to take pictures and record streets, often from regular roads and busy places. The small paths in nature are more difficult to capture. Robin Isfold Munkvold, Helga Dis Isfold Sigurdardottir and Steinunn Bj\u00f6rk on the mountain trip that went wrong. Photo: Privat After two hours in a wild nest in the forest, Sigurdardottir was exhausted. She opened Pok\u00e9mon Go to play a bit, but was surprised when she saw the map. – It showed paths that were not on Google Maps, but which fit much better with what we saw in the terrain, she says. Sigurdardottir and the gang followed the paths on the pokemon map and found their way back to town. It took some time, but the gang recovered. Photo: Private 3D map of the world The Pok\u00e9mon GO map is not new. The new thing now is that the company behind the game (Niantic) has recently said that they will create an AI model that maps the world in a 3D map. – It can be better than all other publicly available maps, says Alf Inge Wang, professor of game technology at NTNU. Google Maps, for example, is mostly in 2D and based mostly on satellite images seen from above. Images of roads and streets in the Street View function are not quite as vivid or dynamic. Although a 3D map of the world can provide exciting technological possibilities, it can also be used to track and locate people. This can, for example, be done by intelligence services or military forces. – It can be used both positively and negatively, depending on the user’s intent, says Wang. Alf Inge Wang believes that a 3D map of the world will be attractive to many and that Niantic will make money from it. Photo: Mari Svenning Criticism Several have criticized Niantic because players have unknowingly trained the company’s AI model. That’s because Niantic uses AR images from the players as training data. Players have been taking these photos since the AR feature was launched in 2021. These photos record what are called pok\u00e9stops in the game. A Pok\u00e9 Stop is a physical location that players have photographed and added to the game’s map, such as a statue, a park, or a public building. – The collection of data has been going on all along, but it is only now that they say what they will use the data for, says Wang. This is what the Pok\u00e9mon Go map looks like. Photo: Richard Vogel \/ Ap When you download Pok\u00e9mon GO, the app asks for access to different types of data. What your camera sees when you play, where and when you move (preferably at all times), all information related to the Google account or email you use to register, the contacts on your phone and health data from the activity app. If you don’t accept most of this, you can’t play. And if you just accept something, you keep getting messages nagging you to grant more access. Niantic tells news that they only use images taken with the AR service to train their AI model. These images also contain the GPS information, sensor data and the camera’s position in relation to the objects. – Scanning the map is completely voluntary. Just walking around and playing doesn’t train an AI model, says Jonny Thaw, head of communications and PR at Niantic. Thaw does not answer questions about why they think it is okay to use old images to train new technology, but says they have been transparent with their users through terms of use. A Pok\u00e9mon Go party in Chicago, 2022. Photo: Amr Alfiky \/ AP – Problematic, but not illegal Lawyer Vebj\u00f8rn S\u00f8ndersr\u00f8d has a lot of experience with legal issues related to internet services. He believes that what Niantic is doing is problematic, but not necessarily illegal. – It is problematic that they only provide this information in 2024, even though it applies back in time to photos taken in 2021, he says. Vebj\u00f8rn S\u00f8ndersr\u00f8d says that it has become common for tech companies to change terms of use long after users have approved them. Photo: Nicolas Tourrenc S\u00f8ndersr\u00f8d explains that using the images just to make the game experience fatter, legally speaking, is not considered a major change that needs a new user agreement. It only becomes illegal if personal information from the images is used in AI training. Then it could break the GDPR and the Marketing Act’s rules on “unreasonable terms”, he explains. – I have no basis to say that this is illegal as of now, but it depends on what they actually do in practice, says S\u00f8ndersr\u00f8d. Professor Alf Inge Wang believes Niantic has secured itself legally, by quietly changing its terms of use rules. news has tracked the changes in Niantic’s terms of use. According to the Wayback Machine, which shows updates on websites over time, Niantic changed its data rights between August and October 2018. In short, Niantic has gained more control over player data after the change. Now, among other things, they can use player-generated content indefinitely for advertising, marketing and development of their services. Irene Kragh Eckell took this selfie on a summit hike she went on just to play Pok\u00e9mon Go. Photo: Privat In search of the prize Irene Kragh Eckell from Porsgrunn has been playing Pok\u00e9mon Go since 2016. She contributes to the Pok\u00e9mon map by scanning Pok\u00e9stops and says she has been aware that Niantic collects the photos she takes. – It appeared in the game that we could scan places. Of course they collect the photos, but it said that it is completely voluntary, she says. What motivates her to scan places is the reward she gets in the game. – For example, there can be balls that are used to catch pokemon. But what I like best is something called Poffin, which you use to feed your “buddy”. A buddy is a pokemon that the player chooses as their companion in the game. And Kragh Eckell takes the scan seriously. – I take it seriously and make sure to scan properly. I’ve read in Facebook groups about people just randomly moving the camera and filming their legs. They said they lost the ability to scan afterwards. But if the game gives her a reward she doesn’t want, she doesn’t spend time on it. – Then I just delete the task and hope for a better reward, says Kragh Eckell. Published 14.12.2024, at 12.43
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This summer, game researcher Helga Dis Isfold Sigurdardottir got lost in a mountain forest in Spain with her husband and a friend. The forest was full of small paths that were not visible on Google Maps, so they could not find their way back. There can be several reasons for this. Google Maps mainly uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18,1480,7541,50,16,14,15,17,9574,1928],"class_list":["post-104302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-country","tag-forest","tag-helga","tag-lost","tag-news","tag-norway","tag-overview","tag-parts","tag-pokemon","tag-saved"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}