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Location-Based Games as Interfaces for Collecting User Data

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Book cover Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST 2020)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1160))

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Abstract

Location-based games (LBGs) are becoming increasingly popular. These games use player’s physical location as a game mechanic, and many of the games are played in real time. This study investigates the affordances that three popular LBGs, Ingress, Pokémon GO and The Walking Dead: Our World, provide for users to collect location data from other players. To this end, the game mechanics of the games and the end user privacy policies are analyzed and compared together. The results reveal several privacy concerns which are not currently adequately addressed in the privacy policies of the games. As LBGs are becoming increasingly complex, the risk of unwanted player data collection opportunities rises, combating which is predicted to be a major design challenge for LBG developers in the future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/IITC-CE/ingress-intel-total-conversion.

  2. 2.

    pogo api: https://github.com/Grover-c13/PokeGOAPI-Java.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/rubenvereecken/pokemongo-api.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Sampsa Rauti & Samuli Laato

Authors
  1. Sampsa Rauti
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  2. Samuli Laato
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sampsa Rauti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Hojjat Adeli

  3. FEUP, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

  5. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro

    Irena Orovic

  6. Universidade Portucalense, Porto, Portugal

    Fernando Moreira

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Rauti, S., Laato, S. (2020). Location-Based Games as Interfaces for Collecting User Data. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S., Orovic, I., Moreira, F. (eds) Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1160. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45691-7_59

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