This is a community for designs specifically crafted to make the experience worse for the user. This can be due to greed, apathy, laziness or just downright scumbaggery.
If you hit "next", the consent window opens again and if you refuse any of them, you get put back at this screen so you're stuck in a loop.
This shitty practice is even endorsed by Google, as they are promoting this game to try out and earn points.
Edit: game is called Jewel Gold Empire: Match 3 and it's from some Korean company it seems: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.penta.empire.google
Obviously I uninstalled it immediately after
If you're in the EU, this is illegal. Consent has to be given freely for it to have legal weight. That means, it cannot be tied to the performance of the service, unless providing the data is strictly necessary for providing the service.
I guess, they get away with it, because no one cares enough to sue a shitty game.
I am, but what can I do? Try and reporting it via the obtuse methods of Google to have them investigate themselves seems pointless
The only thing that's pointless is doing nothing.
Now, I'm not arguing that fighting against this is worth your time. I'm making more a semantic argument that hopelessnes and apathy only allow things to get worse.
Also, fuck this game. Don't play it.
Report them to your national privacy authority.
Assuming you are living in the EU, your country will have that.
I mean, if you do want to do something about it, reporting it to your regional data protection officer would be the first step. Then they'll contact whomever is responsible for this game and tell them to change it or get sued.
Looks like a shitty, generic game
Name and shame
WHAT. GAME. IS IT.
Or don’t waste everyone’s fkg time Jesus
I originally didn't want to include it to not give them any publicity, but a lot of folks seem to agree with you so I added a link to the OP
Well this is a step up from when they were doing it anyway and didn't have to tell you.
So don't play it?
"We value your privacy"
That's what makes it worth invading.
I might have to copy this one liner and spam it everywhere. Omg.
This goes against the GDPR.
There is no GDPR outside of EU.
So they don't sell in EU? Or disable the dialogue only there?
That's what it looks like inside EU:
Only one option to agree to the user agreement and data usage. When you decline, the app just closes instantly
Which speak to the bigger problem of why don't we have this globally? Why hasn't the US had the legislative balls to implement and enforce an equivalent law? For a culture that is so paranoid about personal information, it's just such a massive mental gap.
They are paranoid about foreign actors having personal data, not domestic ones. That said, the whole TikTok thing is as much about stifling international competition as it is about data privacy and who is getting/using said data. Meta, Alphabet, and their ilk all harvest much more data than TikTok, and sell it to data brokers. There is absolutely nothing stopping the Chinese government from just buying the data they would obtain from the mandatory data sharing forced upon Chinese companies.
TikTok took market share from Meta and Alphabet, Suckerberg and whoever is the head letter at Alphabet called up the Congressmen they bought and started making a fuss, so their boys on the hill found excuses to ban it.
I am not sayinf some of the excuses do not have kernels of merit, but they are largely overshadowed by the anticompetitive effect that it has.
Just to expand and answer your larger question, the US government does not respect the privacy of the citizens. The anti-data-brokerage legislation we did manage to get through only occurred AFTER the harvested data was used against those in office, and even then it was made an opt-out legislation which requires us to contact each brokerage firm individually and request, in writing, that our data be purged and we not be tracked. That exempts all new firms from the restrictions and relies on the individual to A. Know how to find the firms and B. Be able to manage contacting each one of them. What this has done is invented an entirely new service industry for removing OUR information from these brokerage firms. So we have to pay for privacy, yet again, making it something really reserved for the rich.
If you look at the other laws, things like license law and such, you will find that the US government has quite truly conspired to make sure that corporations have carte blanch to do whatever they want with those who use their services.
I don't think I've had a mobile game on my phone in 10 years, are there any actual decent ones? They all look so generic.
Indie PC games that charge money for a mobile port. I have stardew valley, binding of Isaac, balatro, slay the spire, monster train, on my phone. (Several are included with Apple Arcade, though I would definitely not subscribe to Arcade if it weren't included with my other stuff. Also I personally wouldn't play stardew or Isaac without a controller.)
If it's "free" it's almost always obscenely abusive. (There are a handful of exceptions, including some open source ones, but I couldn't name any off the top of my head.)
If it’s “free” it’s almost always obscenely abusive. (There are a handful of exceptions, including some open source ones, but I couldn’t name any off the top of my head.)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles&hl=en-US
No data collected, no extra permissions needed... just the games.
Binding of Isaac on mobile sounds incredibly frustrating
Like I said I use a controller. I don't think I'd do super well with touch controls.
There are some pretty cheap controllers you could fit on a keychain that might be a good option for someone who wants "real" mobile games for slightly longer stretches without carrying a big extra device around though.
I heard balatro is super fun maybe i'll give that a go!
I'm not as hooked on it as some. It feels kind of same-y over time, and the "it's poker" thing doesn't scratch any of the same itch as regular poker.
But it's sure as hell better than almost any "free" mobile game because it doesn't have a team of people special tailoring algorithms to decide when to cheat to make you win and when to cheat to screw you over in order to pull as much money as possible.
Well there is stardew valley.
Unciv is a FOSS clone of Civilization 5, great stuff.
Sure there are, they are just hard to find on the official stores. I use mini review (website or phone application). https://minireview.io/
thanks!
I like playing Pocket City 2, Slay the Spire, and Balatro on mobile.
The only mobile games I play are Luck Be a Landlord, Ascension, Shattered Pixel Dungeon, and lately the new Pokémon TCG.
My favorite of them is Ascension. I love that game so much.
Doot for ascension
I gave shattered pixel dungeon like 30 hours. Fuck that game. Items are impossible to equip. Potions are 100% random. Bosses wreck your shit. I literally never got an upgrade in like 30 runs. Literally nothing was equippable.
Did you make sure to find all potions of strength and scrolls of upgrade? There's 2 potions of strength and 3 scrolls of upgrade on the 4 levels before each boss. These enable you to equip items you otherwise wouldn't be able to to equip. Scrolls of upgrade lower the strength requirement of an item. Alchemy with a potion of strength produces a potion that lowers the strength requirement of an item by two, but which can only be used once per item. One strategy can be to hold off on upgrading until you have an item worthy of it (tier 3 or better, better if it's already upgraded) which you have the ability to upgrade so that you can use it. Avoid upgrading low-level weapons and armor unless necessary.
Potions aren't 100% random. For certain loot room there's guaranteed to be a corresponding potion to solve it, for example if there's a room with items behind magical fire there will be a potion of frost somewhere in that level. One enemy in each region is guaranteed to drop potions of healing, in the first area for example this is the flies.
Regarding bosses, one strategy can be to make sure you have a strong enough character right before facing it. This may mean that you will need to upgrade low-level items anyway. With time you'll get a feeling of how strong you need to be for a certain boss and region, while still enabling you to progress in the long term.
Also make sure to get to know the abilities of your class, subclass and magical armor and use them to your advantage.
I’m terrible at it. I have no idea how people get far.
There are some decent ones like chrono trigger, halo, and twisted metal. Or did you mean without an emulator?
Ya just generic phone games, I haven't touched them since jetpack joyride. Actually the last game I played on my phone was pokemon emerald on my ipod touch emulator lol, I'm pretty behind the times.
Maybe Geometry dash(paid version)
I really enjoy Mini Metro. I’ve been addicted to Dots for years, it’s the very best digital fidget.
I paid for a Need for Speed game some 8 years ago and that was pretty OK for a few hours.
A Dark Room is also really good.
That’s about it, to be honest. If you want to pick up a controller, there’s a decent library of older PC or console games that run on phones now - emulators are also an option.
The other option should just be uninstall.
What was on the "Next" screen? Seems like you could decline on the next screen that would have the options and such
As stated in my post, hitting next would bring back the consent window and if you rejected any of the hundreds of vendors, it would bring you back to this screen again.
They sure do value privacy, it's worth a lot to them to sell it. Maybe they should have written "your privacy is valuable to us". Extra points for throwing "gaming journey" in there, lol.
enhancing your gaming journey
I see that and the only enhancement I'll get is a refund
That's not consent, that's quid pro quo! They value the money they get by exposing your privacy to vendors.