Twitter Turns Its Privacy Policy Into a Videogame about a Dog (twitterdatadash.com) 22
What did you think of Twitter Data Dash?
The Guardian describes it as "a Super Nintendo-style browser game that recaps Twitter's private policy."
And the Verge applauds the game — released Wednesday — for its "delightful pixel art aesthetic." "Welcome to PrivaCity!" reads a description of the game on the site. "Get your dog, Data, safely to the park.
"Dodge cat ads, swim through a sea of DMs, battle trolls, and learn how to take control of your Twitter experience along the way...."
The game itself is a pretty straightforward side-scrolling platformer. Each level is themed around what I can best describe as Twitter Things — one features cats wearing ad boards, another has you avoiding trolls — and your goal is to collect five bones as quickly as you can. If you get the bones, the game will explain something about Twitter's privacy settings related to that level and even offer a button linking to Twitter's settings. When you beat the cat ad level, for example, you'll see a message about how Twitter customizes your experience on the platform and points to where you can turn personalized ads on or off....
Twitter introduced the game as part of a bigger push around its privacy policy, which the company has rewritten. "We've emphasized clear language and moved away from legal jargon," Twitter said on its Safety account.
Gizmodo calls the game "adorable," but also "buggy". And they also have some quibbles with its ultimate message: It's a bit rich that Twitter made a game about avoiding faceless advertisers when the platform is actively doing everything it can to make ads tougher to avoid....
[A]fter watching our personas bounce from level to level with our lil blue dog in tow, it became clear that this game is less for us — or any Twitter user, really — and more for the company itself. It's a way to paper over uncomfortable topics like "privacy" and "consent" and "ownership of our personal data" with a lil blue dog, collecting lil bones by hopping across lil stages. Just promise you won't think about where those bones came from in the first place.
The Guardian describes it as "a Super Nintendo-style browser game that recaps Twitter's private policy."
And the Verge applauds the game — released Wednesday — for its "delightful pixel art aesthetic." "Welcome to PrivaCity!" reads a description of the game on the site. "Get your dog, Data, safely to the park.
"Dodge cat ads, swim through a sea of DMs, battle trolls, and learn how to take control of your Twitter experience along the way...."
The game itself is a pretty straightforward side-scrolling platformer. Each level is themed around what I can best describe as Twitter Things — one features cats wearing ad boards, another has you avoiding trolls — and your goal is to collect five bones as quickly as you can. If you get the bones, the game will explain something about Twitter's privacy settings related to that level and even offer a button linking to Twitter's settings. When you beat the cat ad level, for example, you'll see a message about how Twitter customizes your experience on the platform and points to where you can turn personalized ads on or off....
Twitter introduced the game as part of a bigger push around its privacy policy, which the company has rewritten. "We've emphasized clear language and moved away from legal jargon," Twitter said on its Safety account.
Gizmodo calls the game "adorable," but also "buggy". And they also have some quibbles with its ultimate message: It's a bit rich that Twitter made a game about avoiding faceless advertisers when the platform is actively doing everything it can to make ads tougher to avoid....
[A]fter watching our personas bounce from level to level with our lil blue dog in tow, it became clear that this game is less for us — or any Twitter user, really — and more for the company itself. It's a way to paper over uncomfortable topics like "privacy" and "consent" and "ownership of our personal data" with a lil blue dog, collecting lil bones by hopping across lil stages. Just promise you won't think about where those bones came from in the first place.
Sounds about right (Score:3, Insightful)
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Skeletons. Closet. (Score:2)
I guess it's time for that dog to dig up all the skeletons that Twitter has in the closet.
Sounds like whatever Elon's doing, that might be the result of it.
Would be more fitting than this "Privacy? Ha! It's all a game to us!"....
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Elon doesn’t own them yet.
Re:Skeletons. Closet. (Score:5, Funny)
Another way to confuse people (Score:5, Insightful)
Lengthy legal jargon was specifically designed to be arcane and boring enough to incite people to agree without reading.
Videogames with data dogs and cat ads switch to another method: instead of confusion, now they use distraction - and anybody thinking that's "cute" is fucking insane.
Here's the thing; if Twitter really wanted to make their privacy policy clear and understandable by everybody, they would make them CLEAR AND UNDERSTANDABLE BY EVERYBODY. As in, a normal human being who knows how to read reasonably well should be able to understand them IN WRITTEN FORM in 3 minutes or less, using short, understandable sentences in everyday English.
If you need a video game to explain them, they're clearly too complex - and probably intentionally so. Also, it's incredibly patronizing: this screams "We communicate with games for the ADHD generation that's too stupid to read".
Side note: I wonder how the video game would hold in court: "I didn't know my data was being monetized your honor: I managed to clear the level by abusing the game's mechanics by steering the dog along the wall to reach the exit switch without killing the boss."
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Have you seen the legalese version of their privacy policy?
https://twitter.com/en/privacy [twitter.com]
It's actually quite readable and easy to understand. As you may know this is something I take quite seriously and have made several complaints to the UK's regulator about in the past, resulting in changes. Overall I rate the Twitter policy quite highly, in that it's written in plain language and not overly lengthy.
Obviously that's not the same as agreeing with all the ways they collect and use data, but the policy itsel
to bad that disney owns useing dog and dash in the (Score:2)
to bad that disney owns useing dog and dash in the same thing.
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*too
*using
*I still don't understand what you're talking about, even after correcting for the spelling mistakes.
As to the actual game (Score:1)
It's kinda like what I'd imagine you'd get if you asked game developers who were really high, to remake the old Commander Keen game.
Too bad they could've have come up with something involving their old fail whale.
Dogshit (Score:2)
Is it legally binding? (Score:2)
Know your audience (Score:2)
Everyone missing the point (Score:2)
Nobody is going to read a standard legal wall of text. But putting key points into a game means you're forced to read.
I like this approach to legal documents (Score:2)
If I ever move again, I want the transaction documents to be in Mario Cart. I'm having my will done in Ms. Pacman.