kuligs2 if it's free, makes money, and has access to you, it's spyware. there's no way around it, even in the FOSS world.
regarding people calling the dude(s) crazy for the theory, i'd argue it's crazier to assume a global AR phenomenon like that wouldn't be exploited. 2016 is post AOL/Facebook, the idea was not a new concept. even if it was not, it takes a nihilist with ambitions outside the realm of human understanding to hand you a free mobile game using unprecedented technology and scale, take nothing in return but microtransactions (which cant cover server cost alone), and proceed to reject higher entities with pockets deeper than the blackest ocean.

    Jokes on you, smart phones have been doing this all along. It's nothing new.

    If playing Pokemon Go is your idea of fun, you deserve to be spied on 😃

      xyz rude. it was fun for about 10 minutes in 2018 when i found my favorite dog pokemon, that i first saw 25 years ago, in my backyard. i may have immediately uninstalled it the next day, but it was fun.

      • xyz replied to this.

          i never played it, but know this, if you saw someone playing it, youre on the glow in the dark watch-list

          xyz dont tell me you still own and use a pager, not the exploding kind, and keep change in the pocket for telephone booths

              kuligs2
              I don't understand the concept of pager. Especially non-exploding one 😃

              I use regular dumb cellphone. Before you start pitying me, I consider not having to use a smartphone - a privilege. I really don't like the idea of prancing around with the internet attached to myself.

              As for spying, I always presume that my every interaction with any device connected to the internet is completely public. Bank transactions and password typing included. The words of this post are probably popping up on some screen in CIA's basement as I type them. In this day and age how can you be surprised that someone is unsolicitedly collecting data via your smartphone? What else did you expect?

              At this point, "spying" is a rule, not an exception. By using a smartphone, you're tacitly consenting to it. There are high incentives for widespread "spying" among technocratic powers that be and their ilk. Amassed real world data is perceived as extremely valuable, economically and politically. Its value went through the roof in recent years since "AI"-propelled pattern recognition became highly fashionable.

              I do keep change in my pockets though 😃

                  xyz The words of this post are probably popping up on some screen in CIA's basement as I type them.

                  They don't popping up — everything there has been analyzed in automatic mode for a long time. That's what AI was for.

                  • xyz replied to this.

                      xyz I really wish I'd never had one, so I'm envious of you 🙂 I'm always looking at getting a new "dumb phone", but I can't seem to find one I like, so haven't got around to it yet :/

                      Also, my next TV will be an offline dumb tv, with no apps/smart features. I can't stand adverts in the menus and all the other spyware features they have.

                        unless you are generating your own signal using a cb radio.... you are still being watched/tracked/etc. Even then its nearly impossible to isolate that signal and not have anyone pick up on that. My friends dad (radio tech) used to pick up encrypted signals from Navy Jets doing testing around our area... they use multiple channels so you cant hear it all in one place due to how easy it is to bypass. Even non smart devices have more intelligence for data capture than its original functionality. Down to the digital power meter outside your homes for electricity... they are all monitoring you in some way. I always think of the joke... "my wife asked why i carry a gun in the house. I told her the Decepticons. She laughed, i laughed, the toaster laughed... i shot the toaster"... this is becoming more a reality by the year(s)

                        Tomcat They don't popping up

                        Of course they don't. It was a metaphor. "Spies" nowadays are mostly not interest in individuals. They just want heaps and heaps of data from as many sources as possible to run endless statistical analyses on it.

                        Although I could think of a certain word or two that, if typed into internet, may directly set agent Smith's alarm off 😃

                          Tomcat that guy was dmca'ed i guess.. gotta be fast these days..
                          EDIT:
                          Fixed links in the OP... yt filters them external links through yt..