We understand your concerns and we are continuing to work closely with our Privacy Team to provide you with an overview that will address those concerns.
What I can tell you so far is that, regarding consent for ads/Offer Wall, we’ve always erred on the side of caution. This means that our game considers that consent is not given, and that no personal information is being shared.
There will be more details added in the overview that we will provide next week.
I will be x-posting this in the other thread as well.
Again, thank you for your patience.
Hi Shan.
Could I please ask you to now expand or clarify this post of yours?
The update you have posted here today states that personal information (e.g. my DBID and my advertising ID which are emphatically personal information under EU law) is being collected and shared, despite your statement that the game considers consent is not given.
For me it really exacerbates some of my concerns. Right now, I really do not believe that TP/WRG actually understand what personal data is or what consent actually means.
Thanks.
(Sorry, I know it probably feels like I'm having a go at you and I'm really not trying to do that but I am extremely concerned that such seemingly inaccurate information was put out in a post flagged as an admin post at a time when the community was really looking for further information and reassurance.)
So, basically, when the new " Agree" Pop Up happens, we have to accept whatever TP & IronSource want to take as far as our data and whatnot, and whatever they choose 5o do with it? Or we just won't be allowed to play? When many people have invested not only our trust, but also thousands of dollars into game?!?!?
Also, why does the company need to know our battery status?!?!? Just out of curiosity.....
I've been curious about the battery status since I read it on ironSource's website. The only thing I can figure is the ad system is designed to scale down with your battery. If a 30 second ad would be too much, then you get a 20 second ad instead, that kind of thing. I don't understand why none of the text in either ironSource's site or TP's new TOS just says so if that is the reason.
It just seemed like a weird little tidbit to me. Didn't think it was necessarily as "nefarious" as some other things people might be concerned about.
Just seemed like a "HUH?!?!?" kind of thing........
Why was Vicki not expelled from Greendale after she literally stabbed Pierce in the face with a pencil?!?!?
I've been curious about the battery status since I read it on ironSource's website. The only thing I can figure is the ad system is designed to scale down with your battery. If a 30 second ad would be too much, then you get a 20 second ad instead, that kind of thing. I don't understand why none of the text in either ironSource's site or TP's new TOS just says so if that is the reason.
The Battery Status API has been seriously abused by bad actors over the years - it is most often used to help companies like ironSource circumvent your privacy settings by 'fingerprinting' your device, allowing them to track your activity around the web, and contribute to whatever data profile they're building on you as a user.
Apple has removed the API from Webkit/Safari (though it was never actually activated for browsers in the wild). In 2017, Firefox stripped the API from their browser; security researcher Lukasz Olejnik called it 'an unprecedented move in the history of the web; for the first time, an entire API has been purged citing privacy concerns.'
“Here’s why so many apps are asking to use Bluetooth on iOS 13
53
You’ll be astonished at how many apps want Bluetooth access
By Chris Welch@chriswelch Sep 19, 2019, 5:10pm EDT“
My concerns remain about this dubious business relationship between a studio (WRG) that I want to support, a marketing company (TP) that I know little about, and ... that smelly thing over there in the corner.
Erin, Andrea, David: Please stop putting Shan in this type of position. It reflects very poorly on your stewardship of STT for her to always be having to douse flames here, instead of engaging in conversation. Y’all should know better by now.
"In the short run, the game defines the players. But in the long run, it's us players who define the game." — Nicky Case, The Evolution of Trust
What's raising the hair on the back of my neck, is what's in TP Privacy Policy.
Section 4: What data do we process?
Bullet 1: your name, email address, or other contact information if you have provided them to us (for example, when registering an account or subscribing to our communications)
Bullet 4: your coarse location (for example, country, state, or city), inferred from your IP address
Section 6: Who do we share your data with?
Bullet 3: other partners we work with while providing the Services (who may process your data independently of us), including advertising partners, IP licensors, and others listed here;
The link is in their Privacy Policy found here on the forums under Starfleet Communications.
BTW, I dunno if any of you saw it or it got buried in another thread, but within a matter of days of uninstalling Timelines from my phone, I had an ad while playing Wordscapes offering me a free 1/5 McCoy delivered to my inbox to "come back" to Timelines. Mind you, I have continued to play actively via Microsoft throughout this entire ordeal, so "come back" clearly means "reinstall the app". I instead uninstalled Wordscapes and double checked to see if I had any other PeopleFun apps.
This feels stalker-y enough as it is, but I can only imagine how unnerving it would be if I hadn't played for a longer time. An ad in one game out of the blue trying to get me to "come back" to another game I bailed on months ago would probably terrify me.
We took the time to review these concerns and evaluate how best to address them.
I'm sorry TP but you have only confirmed our worst privacy concerns and did absolutely nothing to address these issues outside of posting a belated privacy policy update. What a joke of a company.
Here is an idea: how about you initialize the ironSource SDK ONLY when we first click on an adwarp/mission doubler/offerwall and save those who care for their privacy from this nightmare.
Okay. What exactly can they track with my battery? Just where I go? Or can they also see which videos I actually watch on other sites?!?!?
As the article said, tracking battery life by percentage combined with tracking battery life by minutes gives 14 million different combinations. If there are less than 14 million players, they effectively have a tracking ID for your device by knowing which combination belongs to which device.
We understand your concerns and we are continuing to work closely with our Privacy Team to provide you with an overview that will address those concerns.
What I can tell you so far is that, regarding consent for ads/Offer Wall, we’ve always erred on the side of caution. This means that our game considers that consent is not given, and that no personal information is being shared.
There will be more details added in the overview that we will provide next week.
I will be x-posting this in the other thread as well.
Again, thank you for your patience.
Hi Shan.
Could I please ask you to now expand or clarify this post of yours?
The update you have posted here today states that personal information (e.g. my DBID and my advertising ID which are emphatically personal information under EU law) is being collected and shared, despite your statement that the game considers consent is not given.
For me it really exacerbates some of my concerns. Right now, I really do not believe that TP/WRG actually understand what personal data is or what consent actually means.
Thanks.
(Sorry, I know it probably feels like I'm having a go at you and I'm really not trying to do that but I am extremely concerned that such seemingly inaccurate information was put out in a post flagged as an admin post at a time when the community was really looking for further information and reassurance.)
At this point, I do not think any response provided by Tilting Point is going to satisfy the masses especially considering that data privacy is understandably very important to everyone these days. But let us make some assumptions before I go any further:
1. TP/WRG's most recent update (from July 17th) about privacy concerns is true and accurate in content because it if is not, then we are just speculating and our endless debating is meaningless.
2. The Offer Wall is not in play because that is an entirely different ballgame susceptible to third party privacy policies outside of the control of Tilting Point and/or ironSource.
3. I know a little bit of what I am talking about because I work for one of the largest banks on this planet so we deal with privacy issues all of the time.
Even though it has not come up explicitly, I think that what most people are concerned about relates to personally identifiable information (PII) more so than personal data. PII, commonly used in North America, is defined by the US Office of Privacy and Open Government as:
“Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.”
Now the EU/GDPR breaks down personal data into four main building blocks: “any information”, “relating to”, “an identified or identifiable”, and “natural person”, but I think for our purposes the focus should be on that third element, "an identified or identifiable." Based on the list of information collected by ironSource's SDK from the recent update, I think it is safe to say that most of those items could create profiling data about players that play Star Trek: Timelines (STT) as a whole, but other than advertising ID and DB ID, none of that other information can be used to identify a natural person. Also, contrary to popular belief, the EU GDPR does not require businesses to obtain consent before using their personal information for business purposes. Rather, consent is just one of the six legal bases outlined in Article 6 of the GDPR. But to be clear, explicit consent is most definitely required when PII is concerned.
Are "DBID and advertising ID emphatically personal information under EU law?" Given the wide notion of "personal data" maintained by European lawmakers, I would probably agree, 'yes,' but according to the Article 29 of the Working party opinion, "a broad definition is adopted in order to cover all information which may be linked to an individual." Of course, advertising ID and DB ID are unique identifiers so they could potentially be used to track individual users, but even when linked with that other information collected by ironSource's SDK, it would not reveal any PII data. For example, ironSource would only know that someone who has certain limitations on ads plays a certain version of STT in a specific language and time zone on a particular device with this memory capacity, OS, and battery status using this mobile carrier and this internet connection type. Despite being user-resettable, advertising ID, which is specific to Google Play, is currently under active GDPR investigation so its real risk will become more clear in the future, but DB ID is specific to STT/DB/WRG/TP, so without access to their databases or files, it cannot be used to reveal any sensitive or PII data.
In the end, I think this all comes down to whether or not we trust TP/WRG at their word. If what we are being told is true and accurate, then I do not see any sensitive information being shared directly or indirectly. Of course, data privacy is a very personal matter so I cannot speak for anyone else, hence it will depend on everyone's comfort level to decide how (or if) to continue playing this game we all enjoy.
Okay. What exactly can they track with my battery? Just where I go? Or can they also see which videos I actually watch on other sites?!?!?
🐹
They say they dont track individual users, but they didnt say anything about not tracking batteries.
They specifically mentioned tracking batteries, IIRC.....
That was a pre-coffee statement and is a little muddled. They did mentio that the data about battery life was being sent forward. They did not deny that they use this information to identify devices (and can claim not to track individial users....technically)
Okay. What exactly can they track with my battery? Just where I go? Or can they also see which videos I actually watch on other sites?!?!?
🐹
They say they dont track individual users, but they didnt say anything about not tracking batteries.
They specifically mentioned tracking batteries, IIRC.....
That was a pre-coffee statement and is a little muddled. They did mentio that the data about battery life was being sent forward. They did not deny that they use this information to identify devices (and can claim not to track individial users....technically)
I just wanna know when it is safe to go back to x 🐹......
Why was Vicki not expelled from Greendale after she literally stabbed Pierce in the face with a pencil?!?!?
Okay. What exactly can they track with my battery? Just where I go? Or can they also see which videos I actually watch on other sites?!?!?
🐹
They say they dont track individual users, but they didnt say anything about not tracking batteries.
They specifically mentioned tracking batteries, IIRC.....
That was a pre-coffee statement and is a little muddled. They did mentio that the data about battery life was being sent forward. They did not deny that they use this information to identify devices (and can claim not to track individial users....technically)
I just wanna know when it is safe to go back to x 🐹......
We understand your concerns and we are continuing to work closely with our Privacy Team to provide you with an overview that will address those concerns.
What I can tell you so far is that, regarding consent for ads/Offer Wall, we’ve always erred on the side of caution. This means that our game considers that consent is not given, and that no personal information is being shared.
There will be more details added in the overview that we will provide next week.
I will be x-posting this in the other thread as well.
Again, thank you for your patience.
Hi Shan.
Could I please ask you to now expand or clarify this post of yours?
The update you have posted here today states that personal information (e.g. my DBID and my advertising ID which are emphatically personal information under EU law) is being collected and shared, despite your statement that the game considers consent is not given.
For me it really exacerbates some of my concerns. Right now, I really do not believe that TP/WRG actually understand what personal data is or what consent actually means.
Thanks.
(Sorry, I know it probably feels like I'm having a go at you and I'm really not trying to do that but I am extremely concerned that such seemingly inaccurate information was put out in a post flagged as an admin post at a time when the community was really looking for further information and reassurance.)
So, basically, when the new " Agree" Pop Up happens, we have to accept whatever TP & IronSource want to take as far as our data and whatnot, and whatever they choose 5o do with it? Or we just won't be allowed to play? When many people have invested not only our trust, but also thousands of dollars into game?!?!?
Also, why does the company need to know our battery status?!?!? Just out of curiosity.....
It has been proven that collecting info such as battery status, screen info, device type & operating system, wifi and or cellular info, ... is extremely useful and can be easily used to identify a user (fingerprint them).
[DCC] bebe
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
As far as "non-personalized ads" is concerned, i have fleetmates that would disagree.
[DCC] bebe
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
BTW, the "Learn More" button does not work on my machine so i don't know if it offers any type of opt out options for cookies and other technologies.
Edit: I also found that both links in Shan's first post lead to the same page.
[DCC] bebe
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
Yesterday I logged into Steam to see if I could switch away from my phone. I did not want to have to switch away from the phone, because I only have a couple hours each day availble to access Steam, and would rather use that time playing other games. It would have been the end of completing dailies and competive event runs, but it would be enough to stay in contact with my fleet and play for new 4*s.
As it turns out, STT on Steam only works on Windoze, so for Ironsource's sake I'm not going anywhere, because staying in touch with my fleet and the wider community is important to me. I am also part of the 99% of internet users who dont have time to read the terms of every app and website, much less parse out how they may differ from each other. Perhaps the current state of data privacy in STT is one that I would have accepted and probably have already accepted under different circumstances. But the terms were updated rertroactivly which is a huge breach of trust. This isn't like DB giving out MJP as compensation after many spent money or honor, or nerfing Polywater Yar the moment she was no longer for sale. This cuts deeper then typical gamer gripes or even financal loss.
The debacle of the offer wall was bad enough, but every update from TP/WRG has only come after days if not weeks of delay. The statements were worded to try to mollify our concerns, but the details belie those statements. Ironsource is not keeping profiles on us as individuals, but clearly are keeping profiles on our devices. We are symbiotic with them as far as the internet is concerned. It's bad enough that my bluetooth headset resets the volume when I launch the game; now it is conspiring with my battery to identify me regardless of measures I may have taken elsewhere.
If TP wants to treat us as products then I don't see why I should also be paying for the privledge. Spending was on ice, now its locked in permifrost. I don't usually want to discuss my VIP level, but for context here is is 14x2. Not enough to be a megawhale that underwrites most of their overhead, but definatley enough to buy them a few beers. It also repressents years of loyalty to a great game that had an indie vibe to it that I was proud to support the content creation and the artwork.
If the purpose of Ironsource's data mining is to serve up better ads, then I am not ordering anymore.Even if they had already been the ad provider up to this point, I'm not seeing any. Exhibit A: Homescapes. I've seen maybe a thousand ads but never was tempted. As far as I can tell by the Google Play page, it is some sort of match-3/object search hybrid, but based on the ads you would think it involves pulling pins to help a bouancy-challanged boat evade sharks and lava, or selecting items to help the main characters outrun Pennywise.
Alot of passionate players have left over this, many members of this community that I respect. It took me a long time to process my thoughts and feelings and to come to a decision, but love for the community convinced me to stay. Thank you Shan for being in the unenviable position of being a go-between during these troubled times and everyone who actually read this screed for letting me vent.
They already collect a unique "advertising ID", so they don't need your battery for uniquely fingerprinting you.
That ID is within this game, only. Battery profiling can tell them where else you go......
If you read the privacy policy, you'll see that the advertising ID is actually across all apps on the same device. It actually was invented specifically for cross-app tracking.
And reading both the ToS and Privacy Policy, I find that their contents are fairly normal for proprietary end user software, esp. for games. Actually, much worse exists out there.
Yes, Trekkies may expect companies to be morally better - but then, if you look at what archive camera feeds we sometimes see in Star Trek shows, I wouldn't wonder if Federation ships had archival video cameras on the toilets and the whole senior staff had access to those. Maybe that's why we never see toilets on those ships.
"Don't try to be a great man... just be a man. Let history make its own judgments." -- Dr. Zefram Cochrane, around 2073
Comments
It just seemed like a weird little tidbit to me. Didn't think it was necessarily as "nefarious" as some other things people might be concerned about.
Just seemed like a "HUH?!?!?" kind of thing........
And it DOES have nefarious connotations......
Thanx, Smelly!!!!!
🖖🖖🏻🖖🏼🖖🏽🖖🏿
The Battery Status API has been seriously abused by bad actors over the years - it is most often used to help companies like ironSource circumvent your privacy settings by 'fingerprinting' your device, allowing them to track your activity around the web, and contribute to whatever data profile they're building on you as a user.
Apple has removed the API from Webkit/Safari (though it was never actually activated for browsers in the wild). In 2017, Firefox stripped the API from their browser; security researcher Lukasz Olejnik called it 'an unprecedented move in the history of the web; for the first time, an entire API has been purged citing privacy concerns.'
https://blog.lukaszolejnik.com/battery-status-readout-as-a-privacy-risk/
https://blog.lukaszolejnik.com/battery-status-not-included-assessing-privacy-in-w3c-web-standards/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/how-battery-status-readouts-can-threaten-user-privacy/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/03/privacy-smartphones-battery-life
Following your links led to an article from September 2019:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20867286/ios-13-bluetooth-permission-privacy-feature-apps
“Here’s why so many apps are asking to use Bluetooth on iOS 13
53
You’ll be astonished at how many apps want Bluetooth access
By Chris Welch@chriswelch Sep 19, 2019, 5:10pm EDT“
My concerns remain about this dubious business relationship between a studio (WRG) that I want to support, a marketing company (TP) that I know little about, and ... that smelly thing over there in the corner.
Erin, Andrea, David: Please stop putting Shan in this type of position. It reflects very poorly on your stewardship of STT for her to always be having to douse flames here, instead of engaging in conversation. Y’all should know better by now.
Section 4: What data do we process?
Bullet 1: your name, email address, or other contact information if you have provided them to us (for example, when registering an account or subscribing to our communications)
Bullet 4: your coarse location (for example, country, state, or city), inferred from your IP address
Section 6: Who do we share your data with?
Bullet 3: other partners we work with while providing the Services (who may process your data independently of us), including advertising partners, IP licensors, and others listed here;
The link is in their Privacy Policy found here on the forums under Starfleet Communications.
This feels stalker-y enough as it is, but I can only imagine how unnerving it would be if I hadn't played for a longer time. An ad in one game out of the blue trying to get me to "come back" to another game I bailed on months ago would probably terrify me.
🐹
Here is an idea: how about you initialize the ironSource SDK ONLY when we first click on an adwarp/mission doubler/offerwall and save those who care for their privacy from this nightmare.
What videos are you watching? 😂😂
You seem a little worried there. 😀
-- Dr. Zefram Cochrane, around 2073
They say they dont track individual users, but they didnt say anything about not tracking batteries.
That ID is within this game, only. Battery profiling can tell them where else you go......
They specifically mentioned tracking batteries, IIRC.....
At this point, I do not think any response provided by Tilting Point is going to satisfy the masses especially considering that data privacy is understandably very important to everyone these days. But let us make some assumptions before I go any further:
1. TP/WRG's most recent update (from July 17th) about privacy concerns is true and accurate in content because it if is not, then we are just speculating and our endless debating is meaningless.
2. The Offer Wall is not in play because that is an entirely different ballgame susceptible to third party privacy policies outside of the control of Tilting Point and/or ironSource.
3. I know a little bit of what I am talking about because I work for one of the largest banks on this planet so we deal with privacy issues all of the time.
Even though it has not come up explicitly, I think that what most people are concerned about relates to personally identifiable information (PII) more so than personal data. PII, commonly used in North America, is defined by the US Office of Privacy and Open Government as:
“Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.”
Personal data, as defined in article 4 of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), is deliberately broad in scope:
“Personal data” shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subject')."
(This blog does a nice job of further explaining the differences between PII and personal data:
https://techgdpr.com/blog/difference-between-pii-and-personal-data/)
Now the EU/GDPR breaks down personal data into four main building blocks: “any information”, “relating to”, “an identified or identifiable”, and “natural person”, but I think for our purposes the focus should be on that third element, "an identified or identifiable." Based on the list of information collected by ironSource's SDK from the recent update, I think it is safe to say that most of those items could create profiling data about players that play Star Trek: Timelines (STT) as a whole, but other than advertising ID and DB ID, none of that other information can be used to identify a natural person. Also, contrary to popular belief, the EU GDPR does not require businesses to obtain consent before using their personal information for business purposes. Rather, consent is just one of the six legal bases outlined in Article 6 of the GDPR. But to be clear, explicit consent is most definitely required when PII is concerned.
Are "DBID and advertising ID emphatically personal information under EU law?" Given the wide notion of "personal data" maintained by European lawmakers, I would probably agree, 'yes,' but according to the Article 29 of the Working party opinion, "a broad definition is adopted in order to cover all information which may be linked to an individual." Of course, advertising ID and DB ID are unique identifiers so they could potentially be used to track individual users, but even when linked with that other information collected by ironSource's SDK, it would not reveal any PII data. For example, ironSource would only know that someone who has certain limitations on ads plays a certain version of STT in a specific language and time zone on a particular device with this memory capacity, OS, and battery status using this mobile carrier and this internet connection type. Despite being user-resettable, advertising ID, which is specific to Google Play, is currently under active GDPR investigation so its real risk will become more clear in the future, but DB ID is specific to STT/DB/WRG/TP, so without access to their databases or files, it cannot be used to reveal any sensitive or PII data.
In the end, I think this all comes down to whether or not we trust TP/WRG at their word. If what we are being told is true and accurate, then I do not see any sensitive information being shared directly or indirectly. Of course, data privacy is a very personal matter so I cannot speak for anyone else, hence it will depend on everyone's comfort level to decide how (or if) to continue playing this game we all enjoy.
That was a pre-coffee statement and is a little muddled. They did mentio that the data about battery life was being sent forward. They did not deny that they use this information to identify devices (and can claim not to track individial users....technically)
I just wanna know when it is safe to go back to x 🐹......
It has been proven that collecting info such as battery status, screen info, device type & operating system, wifi and or cellular info, ... is extremely useful and can be easily used to identify a user (fingerprint them).
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
As far as "non-personalized ads" is concerned, i have fleetmates that would disagree.
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
Edit: I also found that both links in Shan's first post lead to the same page.
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
Yeah, the "Learn More" for the cookie disclaimer doesn't work for me either. It was the first thing I checked when I went to their site.
I will not accept any cookie unless I know if it is chocolate chip or not.
You can switch off and change the advertising ID, hence why they fingerprint.
As it turns out, STT on Steam only works on Windoze, so for Ironsource's sake I'm not going anywhere, because staying in touch with my fleet and the wider community is important to me. I am also part of the 99% of internet users who dont have time to read the terms of every app and website, much less parse out how they may differ from each other. Perhaps the current state of data privacy in STT is one that I would have accepted and probably have already accepted under different circumstances. But the terms were updated rertroactivly which is a huge breach of trust. This isn't like DB giving out MJP as compensation after many spent money or honor, or nerfing Polywater Yar the moment she was no longer for sale. This cuts deeper then typical gamer gripes or even financal loss.
The debacle of the offer wall was bad enough, but every update from TP/WRG has only come after days if not weeks of delay. The statements were worded to try to mollify our concerns, but the details belie those statements. Ironsource is not keeping profiles on us as individuals, but clearly are keeping profiles on our devices. We are symbiotic with them as far as the internet is concerned. It's bad enough that my bluetooth headset resets the volume when I launch the game; now it is conspiring with my battery to identify me regardless of measures I may have taken elsewhere.
If TP wants to treat us as products then I don't see why I should also be paying for the privledge. Spending was on ice, now its locked in permifrost. I don't usually want to discuss my VIP level, but for context here is is 14x2. Not enough to be a megawhale that underwrites most of their overhead, but definatley enough to buy them a few beers. It also repressents years of loyalty to a great game that had an indie vibe to it that I was proud to support the content creation and the artwork.
If the purpose of Ironsource's data mining is to serve up better ads, then I am not ordering anymore.Even if they had already been the ad provider up to this point, I'm not seeing any. Exhibit A: Homescapes. I've seen maybe a thousand ads but never was tempted. As far as I can tell by the Google Play page, it is some sort of match-3/object search hybrid, but based on the ads you would think it involves pulling pins to help a bouancy-challanged boat evade sharks and lava, or selecting items to help the main characters outrun Pennywise.
Alot of passionate players have left over this, many members of this community that I respect. It took me a long time to process my thoughts and feelings and to come to a decision, but love for the community convinced me to stay. Thank you Shan for being in the unenviable position of being a go-between during these troubled times and everyone who actually read this screed for letting me vent.
No.
If you read the privacy policy, you'll see that the advertising ID is actually across all apps on the same device. It actually was invented specifically for cross-app tracking.
And reading both the ToS and Privacy Policy, I find that their contents are fairly normal for proprietary end user software, esp. for games. Actually, much worse exists out there.
Yes, Trekkies may expect companies to be morally better - but then, if you look at what archive camera feeds we sometimes see in Star Trek shows, I wouldn't wonder if Federation ships had archival video cameras on the toilets and the whole senior staff had access to those. Maybe that's why we never see toilets on those ships.
-- Dr. Zefram Cochrane, around 2073