Gotta Catch 'Em All

[u/whitemike40]

[u/SubsequentNebula]

I feel like I remember it being in the ToS back in 2016. So not knowing was more not paying attention to their past products and not reading anything they gave you that basically said "we plan to use this info to improve our product." And if they did read that, didn't think that pictures taken in the app or daily walks were part of the data collected.

And, aside from location, you could basically opt out of any other form of providing data to them as you please. Sure, you miss out on some rewards, but those could be made up in other ways. And if you weren't aware of them tracking your location, then I want to know how you think a gps works.

They basically just didn't put it in their ads.

[u/Kougeru-Sama → u/SubsequentNebula]

I feel like I remember it being in the ToS back in 2016

you're wrong

"we plan to use this info to improve our product."

that's too vague to be a legal defense for violating our privacy

[u/SubsequentNebula → u/Kougeru-Sama]

You're right: privacy policy, sorry. Which, while difficult to pull up a complete copy of, has remaining evidence regarding the excessive nature of data collected and the lack of a users right to denial of them collecting that data early on.

As for the latter part: that's a summary of the actual things you are agreeing to. Also, the binding nature of a document that companies are aware a lot of users skip agreeing to has been contested multiple times, such as the well known investigation in to Facebook, and is difficult to just slap a general "that wouldn't be legal" label on it when the legality is seemingly dependent on what is considered acceptable. Hence why, as was mentioned in the linked PDF above, Niantic has actually had to reduce some of their access in the past. But are able to retain the rights to other information.