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Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 24 May 2022, 16:51
by twenty9oh7
So something happened this morning that I have never seen since being on BGA and I genuinely do not know if this is a new feature or not.

When I logged on this morning via mobile, I saw that it showed one friend online. When I clicked to view which friend was online, it said that none within my list of friends were online, but it showed me one user that was "online near you"

I had Bluetooth on, but my GPS is disabled and I'm not on WiFi....so what on earth is this and how do I never see it again?

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/8tKUGdy

Re: Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 24 May 2022, 16:57
by twenty9oh7
I should add that the person still appeared with Bluetooth off and that this is a user I have never had any interaction with whatsoever.

Re: Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 17 June 2022, 01:44
by Mathew5000
Presumably this was someone with the same cellular-service-provider as you, who was showing up to the BGA server as coming from the same IP address. That's just a guess though.

Re: Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 22 July 2022, 23:09
by FT3
I’ve got this now, on mobile with Wi-Fi turned off.

Re: Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 15 September 2022, 02:59
by kytbell
Same here for the first time tonight, also on my phone, connected to my Wi-Fi which is password-protected and does not reflect any additional user, Bluetooth on.

This is creepy as frick. Why should complete strangers know where I am? For European users, does this even meet GDPR regulations?

Re: Showing Users Online "Near Me" in friends?

Posted: 15 September 2022, 09:09
by vichy
kytbell wrote: 15 September 2022, 02:59 Same here for the first time tonight, also on my phone, connected to my Wi-Fi which is password-protected and does not reflect any additional user, Bluetooth on.

This is creepy as frick. Why should complete strangers know where I am? For European users, does this even meet GDPR regulations?
Maybe. I'm not a lawyer so, in my opinion: "Personal data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification of a particular person, also constitute personal data."

"Examples of personal data: location data (for example the location data function on a mobile phone)"

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic ... al-data_en

So, in my opinion, if the system forces this information to be shown without prior consultation and does not give the possibility of hiding it, I thinks it is being violated. If that information is coming from real location data, it has not been previously consulted and does not give the possibility of hiding it.

And as indicated in the privacy policy, they collect "• Connection data when You access the Applications and use the Services (time and location of your activities, username and IP address, browsers and devices used);"

On the contrary, if that information comes from the fact that you have put the information about your city in the profile and checked the option to "share with other players" (https://boardgamearena.com/preferences? ... ublicinfos), it would not be violating it.

And in that case, it is such unreliable data that it makes this function useless. (Good morning from Bouvet Island, a subantarctic, volcanic island, almost completely covered by glaciers and uninhabited ;) )

About transmitting this information to third parties for, for example, advertising (Purposes, 14) without prior consultation and without the explanation of a method to revoke this consent, I already have my doubts. And after seeing what has happened with Google and Facebook/Meta in recent years when they wanted to transfer their data to the USA (which have less strict regulations than the EU), I also have doubts about that notice that the data can be transferred to USA or China. But this is already an issue for a lawyer to analyze and not for me, who just woke up and I still haven't had breakfast...

In the privacy policy are the data of the Data Protection Officer (DPO), in case you want to consult it.

What I can tell you for sure: it's very creepy and it's unnecessary. This is not a social network or a dating app.