Pokémon Go, Augmented Reality and privacy in Virtual Spaces

P O K É M O N G O , A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y A N D P R I VA C Y I N V I R T U A L S PA C E S

D R A N D R E S G U A D A M U Z , U N I V E R S I T Y O F S U S S E X

A N A P O L O G Y…

… A N D A C O N F E S S I O N

T H E A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y R E V O L U T I O N

W E T H O U G H T I T W O U L D L O O K L I K E T H I S

O R L I K E T H I S

B U T I T E N D E D U P L O O K I N G L I K E T H I S

T H E B A F F L I N G R I S E O F M A S S A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y, F U E L L E D B Y C U T E P O C K E T M O N S T E R S

G Y M S A N D S T O P S

S M I L E , Y O U ’ R E O N P O K É M O N G O

V I R T U A L A N D R E A L C L A S H

T H E G R E AT VA P O R E O N S TA M P E D E O F C E N T R A L PA R K

S A N TA M O N I C A P I E R D R A G O N A I R C R O W D

B E L L E V U E PA R K S Q U I R T L E M O B

T H E B O O N S H E R I D A N C A S E

• Massachusetts man had his house labelled as a gym.

• Used to be a church.

• Goes online to complain about the situation, his house was visited at all hours.

D O D I C H E T A L V. N I A N T I C , I N C . E T A L

• Class action lawsuit in California court by Detroit citizens.

• Claim for nuisance and unjustified enrichment.

• “Pokéstops and Pokémon gyms had “creat[ed] havoc”; that Pokémon Go players “are on our lawns . . . looking right into our windows to catch a Pokemon”.

B R E S S O L L E , F R A N C E

• Mayor of the city of Bressolles (North of Lyon) issues order banning youth congregating to play Pokemon Go.

• Claims public order and security. Anarchic game that addicts the youth.

• “When a cafe or a restaurant owner wants to open a business in any French town, they have an obligation to request prior authorization to the mayor. The rule applies to all people wishing to set up an activity or occupy a space on a public property. So it applies to Niantic as well, even though their settlement is virtual”.

L A P U N TA , L I M A , P E R U

• Mayor issues ordinance banning all outdoor playing of the game. Phones will be confiscated.

• “We’re doing this for the people, because they can’t be hearing guys playing at all hours in the night, waking people up. This creates discomfort in the population. It is also to protect people who play, whose often are looking at their phones and may suffer an accident on the road or in the sea.”

T H E L E G A L Q U E S T I O N

• Can people object to their property being used as a gym or stop?

• Niantic offers option to flag problems, no indication if this is at all working.

• This is just the beginning.

A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y I S C O M I N G

H O N E S T LY, I T I S C O M I N G

A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y I S H E R E

O U R D ATA I S A B O U T T O B E C O L L E C T E D I N I N D U S T R I A L Q U A N T I T I E S

W H AT H A P P E N S W H E N T H I N G S G O W R O N G ?

W H AT H A P P E N S W H E N T H I N G S I N E V I TA B LY T U R N N A S T Y ?

W H AT H A P P E N S W H E N T H I N G S I N E V I TA B LY T U R N N A S T Y ?

N O , R E A L LY …

A P R I VA C Y M I N E F I E L D

H A S N ’ T PA I D R E N T

Hates kittens

A P R I VA C Y M I N E F I E L D

A P R I VA C Y M I N E F I E L D

L E G A L R E C O U R S E S

• Defamation.

• Tort (e.g. nuisance).

• Right to be forgotten (right to erasure).

• Other data protection rights.

H O W E V E R …

• Defamation is lengthy and expensive (and data may not be defamatory anyway).

• Tort may not apply.

• 53% of RTBF requests are denied by Google.

• Data protection only protects data subjects, may not cover virtual spaces.

M Y P R O P O S A L

• Make virtual spaces subject to data protection.

• Data object: a place or object designated in a database. Data subject with related rights to the space acquires rights.

• Give users right to have inaccurate data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed.

C O N C L U D I N G …

@ T E C H N O L L A M A

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