No, because I did not post about it there. I have 0% trust that would change anything. I have made a few other posts there, but I never had anyone from Niantic answer anything.
If I thought it would make a difference posting in the other forum, I would.
Meanwhile, the insult is when they just don't answer me here. Me and others too, in many other posts. I know they can see the tags. The longer time passes, the more outrageous this becomes.
I agree with you to some point. But one could also argue that when everything is broadcasted like it is in Ingress, why not at least give people that tiny little privacy option? I can't understand why this should even be such a big thing to change? People clearly want the option. And they kiiiinda acknowledged that there was a problem, because they changed the text in Settings. To avoid problems, is my guess.
But yes, either way, they can't just ignore people like this. It's NOT the first time either. I mean, they clearly can, but... It's so extremely disrespectful.
I'll never understand the decisions this company makes.
I don't really see why this matters. All that your name on a portal photo means is that you were in that spot ONCE at some point in time to take that photo. How is that going to impact your privacy in the slightest?
And how is this an issue when the game broadcasts your location to all players in the area every time you claim a portal or make a link?
Speaking as one of the Ingress AGs, I don't see this as a particularly big problem.
Probably the same goes for the majority of AGs.
If a good quality portal is approved with the correct title, sufficient description, and correct location information, there is no impediment to play and privacy when an agent name is seen.
And as long as I play fair myself, there is nothing for others to say.
If your real name and email address are visible, I can understand why you would see this as a problem, but please give specifics as to what the problem would be if your agent name were visible.
If the issue resonates with many AGs, including myself, that may change.
Frankly, I think we should take people at their word when they say there's a privacy issue. It's unfortunately very easy to imagine bad actors harassing players for any reason they can find in games like Ingress or Pokémon GO. I don't think anyone should be made to feel like they have to justify to other players why the lack of a privacy feature is a problem for them (especially when that privacy feature was promised by the company months if not years ago).
As far as I'm aware, the Ingress forums have virtually zero representation from Niantic staff, they just look very occasionally. Majority of posts there are vents anyway about why Niantic doesn't care about Ingress etc etc.
It seems that Ingress staff are active in two other platforms though: Campfire (for some god forsaken reason) and Telegram. They have continuing presence within their regular events such as anomalies, but online is pretty bare. Giving them feedback at live events and hoping it goes up the line is a whole different story. One of my friends says he has contact with a Niantic staffer that he can directly relay thoughts to. Dunno how much that can amount to.
In fact, there have been real world injuries over a mere 50 pokecoins in gym battles.
This was a very strong reason as to why I stopped playing Pokemon GO.
If you feel you are being harassed, you are being harassed.
There is no way for others to verify this.
For example, someone once said that being clicked on "disagree" was spam.
100% disagreement, partial disagreement, wrong click, all are possibilities, but we are human beings and we can disagree and make mistakes in our operations.
If you call it spam, you can't have a discussion.
Of course, mistakes in operation are not spam.
Also, let's say, for example, a player wants a couchwayspot, so he nominates a low-quality garbagewayspot and it gets approved.
A player happens to pass by and reports it for deletion, and it is approved, so the wayspot is deleted.
I was harassed for this kind of thing! There are people in the real world who say, "I was harassed!
And recently, I don't know if it was because I uploaded a photo that had nothing to do with that wayspot, but it was removed all together and I received a 30-day ban at almost the same time, some people talked about it.
They were harassed by Niantic and the Wayfarer team! You are ranting about it, aren't you?
Influencers of one particular game in particular are ranting badly.
One of the ambassadors was very polite about it, but they were harassed! and don't link Wayfarer to the game! and "Don't link Wayfarer to the game!
If you don't see why this matters for you, then good for you. If somebody needs this option, do you need to understand it?
Could you maybe just accept that this is a problem for some? Do you like having options yourself? Because, even if you don't care, you can still show your name on a portal. But if someone has insecurities about spraying their name all over certain areas (more than we already do by playing the game) - why would you not respect that and let them have that option? The option that does not affect you in any way? Literally what will be taken from you by others having an extra option that makes them feel more comfortable?
Hey, thanks for commenting, but please stay on the topic. We are not discussing PoGO here - and even if you wanted to make that comparison, the point here would be that in PoGO, you DO have the option to be anonymous on created Pokéstops.
Luckily you seem to have come to the conclusion yourself that this is not about PoGO and PokéCoins... So moving on.
I have to mark some of your statements as red flags. If someone is experiencing OR fearing harassment while playing Ingress or whatever game, that has to be taken seriously. You don't know everyone, you don't know everyone's situation or gaming community or whatever else can influence how they experience playing these games. As written in the previous comment (above, to another person), you have to be really careful about thinking others don't deserve options just because YOU yourself do not need those options. Just be glad you're fine without them and scroll on?
Oh, and I have no idea what you're talking about in the whole last part of that message, @tp235-ING ... Who's ranting about what, and what influencers and what the what 30-day ban?
I happily leave my username on my submissions as I'm ok with that, I do however have the choice.
My opinion is irrelevant though if someone else isn't happy with that and not having the choice *And* being completely ignored then I'll like and bump their threads as much as possible.
Looking around the Ingress Community Specialist was last on the forums on August 25th, and the Director for it on September 28th.
Been a while though. Community specialist... away for more than a month.
But yeah, this post. I like having my agent name on certain things like photos (because they're most definitely improvements from the original) so I pride myself in as such. Also particularly in missions as the creator (which I've stopped because of the endless bogus rejection reasons by Niantic mission reviewers that the Second Sunday/First Saturday banner descriptions are irrelevant or I'm using a third-party photo which is a complete lie), it's nice to see the contributor recognised.
I howeverdon't like my pogo name on things because I had been previously threatened via Campfire for replacing a beloved gym that was completely removed and reported with a Pokestop in the same cell and my pogo username happened to be on that. I also tend to submit some borderline nominations (exercise gyms, award-winning restaurants, picnic tables, even cycling markers) that although Pogoers generally don't mind what they're spinning (such as this gem below), I've come across an individual or two who are hell-bent on wayspot quality at my own detriment.
You know the drill. Not bat an eye when a whole bunch of new Pokestops appear in the local community, report the gym (a LFL in the front of a primary school) and use the whole bunch of new Pokestops (submitted via Pogo) to identify the submitter since they also appeared at the same time the gym moved and abuse them to heck. I probably just ruffled the feathers of a singular vocal salty Pogo-er (which happens more often than Ingress players, probably because of the volume of them).
Completely understand the need and preference to toggle by username. In fact, maybe they would allow codename/username display by Niantic ID or choose whatever username across all games. Although I don't believe that Wayfarer is properly integrated with Niantic ID which is a shame. I'd toggle name display by Ingress as on, Pogo off.
And it is a leap of faith to think that a codename on a photo of a portal or PokéStop could lead to harassment.
Your codename can be seen by others throughout the game.
In Ingress, every time you destroy a portal with a burster, capture it, and link portals together to create a control field, it is logged under your codename.
PGO also shows your codename and Pokemon when you attack a Pokemon gym and place your Pokemon in the gym, the codenames of the trainers you fight with in raid battles, and the codenames of your opponents in PvP.
Even in Pikmin and MHNow you can see your opponent's codename in the game.
In other words, you can't hide your codename when you are playing the game.
So, hiding the codename that appears on the wayspot photo will not do anything to prevent harassment.
If there is harassment, it is more likely to come from players who are angry at you for playing, not from seeing your codename on the Ingress Portal.
If there is clear evidence of harassment, you can promptly report it to the management, and the harasser will be penalized. (e.g., verbal abuse of you at COMM).
Also, if you are saying that you have been harassed because of the deletion of portals you have named one after another, or the modification of your location, title, or description, then you are wrong.
I don't call it harassment because the deletion of wayspots and the modification of their locations, titles and descriptions are all done by Wayfarer review or Wayfarer staff.
No one player can do that on their own.
P.S
If a number of PGO influencers nominate a Pokéstop or upload a photo, " PGO accounts can be banned for 30 days for unfair cheating, and this is an overreach by the Wayfarer team. And this is an overreach by the Wayfarer team," they told the PGO trainers.
And they think this is harassment by Niantic and the Wayfarer team.
Well, they are wrong, since the TOS originally stated that cheaters would be banned from their accounts.
On the other hand, if the Wayfarer team had correctly applied the TOS and banned game accounts in 2020, we would have a different situation with falsely created cluster wayspots, the current Dutch bot, and a worldwide flood of low quality wayspots.
@NianticAaron your response, please. Just coming into this thread and closing it without any single response doesn't count as targeted 50% forum engagement.
So... You make a post in 2021 about giving users consent options as to what we want to display on Wayspots etc - then you decide to ignore the fact that the settings do not work, and then you continue to ignore people posting about this for MONTHS?
Help me understand. Help me understand why you don't think users deserve those options anyway. Help me understand why you changed the wording, not the problem. Help me understand why you did so secretly, without making any announcement. And for crying out loud, help me understand why you and your team finds it perfectly acceptable to ignore me and other posters, and to KEEP ignoring us, even though we do everything we can to just get minimal respect from you: A response. Not even asking for anything that makes sense. Not expecting that anymore either. But it's bizarre at this point, that you just won't show common respect and give a reply. Just anything really, it's WEIRD at this point.
Yeah, I'm tired. I never signed up for Wayfarer to sit in some forum and socialize*. If the Wayfarer team's job does not include helping Wayfarer users, then what are we supposed to do?
*Don't get me wrong, I have gotten tons of helpful responses and feedback from other users here, and many thanks for that to those other users, but I don't see why they have to handle inquiries made to Niantic? Because that is what is happening.
Oh, and PS: I am not stopping before you reply. I don't think that is unreasonable of me. I do however find this quite exhausting.
Did someone also complained with the privacy officer of Niantic, at dpo@nianticlabs.com?
In their privacy policy, under "1. Who decides how your information is used?" that's mentioned as their primary source of contact. Since @Johnsonsine-ING has concerns on how the personal data is being used, and don't get enough information regarding this matter from regular Niantic support, that would be a step to take.
Wayfarer is just a messenger in this case and doesn't publicize the information within Ingress.
Just my 5 cents, but the possibility to hide one's username from wayspots is one of the (many) reasons why the quality of wayspots have plummeted.
If there wasn't any legal obligation to do so (don't know if there is), and I was a dictator of Wayfarer, I would NOT allow username masking in any games to keep up the quality.
Yeah, you may disagree and not everyone would like it, but that is my opinion.
Of course I know this is and won't ever be the case. Just wanted to remind that there were next to none problems pre-Pokemon Go when Ingress users always had their IGN visible in wayspots (portals). One always had the opportunity to opt out from nominating anything if they didn't want their username to pop up, for whatever reasons.
I may have to try that, thank you. It's quite serious, I think, that we can't just get help from Niantic easily to handle this problem.
I also have to maintain my strong concern about the complete silence from the Niantic team in situations like this one.
It's not like they have not had a chance to see this post, consider it, and respond within a reasonable time. I will always think of this silence as an extremely disrespectful and strange way of treating your "valued members of the community".
They also need to address the fact that they just silently changed the wording, not the actual problem here. And made no communication about the change.
Even if the email you mentioned is where we should go with this, Niantic staff here could have pointed us towards that. They could also be extra cool and contact the person, since they know "inside Niantic" more than I ever will. But no. Just silence.
At this point, it's just like a strange bet or competition or whatever, like "How long can this go on?" Will we get to 6 months with no answer? A year? More?
If you're going to contact to the privacy officer, I think it would be a good idea to keep it to the facts, be friendly, and be aware that the person perhaps won't even play Ingress and / or Pokemon Go, and isn't aware of any forum discussions.
A username is used to identify a single person, and as such, should be considered personal data
There is no need to show a username on specific allocation for gameplay, especially on portals
On the other hand, it could harm the specified user, because of {state reasons}
Alternatives are available, because removal of a user would also remove the name, and other games like pokemon go don't show a name.
Multiple attempts to raise this issue has been made at {date} and {location}, but you didn't get a response from a representative of Niantic.
The DPO is acting outside of Niantic support, so you don't have much to do with support anyhow. If the DPO doesn't respond within a timely fashion, you can escalate further with privacy authorities.
But if you want to follow that route, I can only suggest to take one step at a time.
unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a direct contact point for them, but flagging it as such in a can you help email under data protection might find a way through🤞
Ingress has made it clear they don't respect your privacy. If nothing has changed after all this effort, it likely never will.
This isn't a perfect fix but you could play pogo until you gain Wayfarer access. Can be done quick, during some events it can even be done in a single day. Plenty of 'Go Wayfarers have Ingress accounts basically just for IITC.
Comments
No, because I did not post about it there. I have 0% trust that would change anything. I have made a few other posts there, but I never had anyone from Niantic answer anything.
If I thought it would make a difference posting in the other forum, I would.
Meanwhile, the insult is when they just don't answer me here. Me and others too, in many other posts. I know they can see the tags. The longer time passes, the more outrageous this becomes.
Thank you!
I agree with you to some point. But one could also argue that when everything is broadcasted like it is in Ingress, why not at least give people that tiny little privacy option? I can't understand why this should even be such a big thing to change? People clearly want the option. And they kiiiinda acknowledged that there was a problem, because they changed the text in Settings. To avoid problems, is my guess.
But yes, either way, they can't just ignore people like this. It's NOT the first time either. I mean, they clearly can, but... It's so extremely disrespectful.
I'll never understand the decisions this company makes.
I don't really see why this matters. All that your name on a portal photo means is that you were in that spot ONCE at some point in time to take that photo. How is that going to impact your privacy in the slightest?
And how is this an issue when the game broadcasts your location to all players in the area every time you claim a portal or make a link?
Speaking as one of the Ingress AGs, I don't see this as a particularly big problem.
Probably the same goes for the majority of AGs.
If a good quality portal is approved with the correct title, sufficient description, and correct location information, there is no impediment to play and privacy when an agent name is seen.
And as long as I play fair myself, there is nothing for others to say.
If your real name and email address are visible, I can understand why you would see this as a problem, but please give specifics as to what the problem would be if your agent name were visible.
If the issue resonates with many AGs, including myself, that may change.
Frankly, I think we should take people at their word when they say there's a privacy issue. It's unfortunately very easy to imagine bad actors harassing players for any reason they can find in games like Ingress or Pokémon GO. I don't think anyone should be made to feel like they have to justify to other players why the lack of a privacy feature is a problem for them (especially when that privacy feature was promised by the company months if not years ago).
That would create far more problems with gym battles, raid battles, and PvP battles with your code names clearly visible.
All of them will have to be scrapped because they are a problem in the system. LOL!
In fact, there have been real world injuries over a mere 50 pokecoins in gym battles.
It is a very big problem!
When I put it this way, it is a PGO problem. It has nothing to do with code name display.
Most PGO players will say that.
It is the same thing.
As far as I'm aware, the Ingress forums have virtually zero representation from Niantic staff, they just look very occasionally. Majority of posts there are vents anyway about why Niantic doesn't care about Ingress etc etc.
It seems that Ingress staff are active in two other platforms though: Campfire (for some god forsaken reason) and Telegram. They have continuing presence within their regular events such as anomalies, but online is pretty bare. Giving them feedback at live events and hoping it goes up the line is a whole different story. One of my friends says he has contact with a Niantic staffer that he can directly relay thoughts to. Dunno how much that can amount to.
In fact, there have been real world injuries over a mere 50 pokecoins in gym battles.
This was a very strong reason as to why I stopped playing Pokemon GO.
Looking around the Ingress Community Specialist was last on the forums on August 25th, and the Director for it on September 28th.
Harassment" is subjective, not objective.
If you feel you are being harassed, you are being harassed.
There is no way for others to verify this.
For example, someone once said that being clicked on "disagree" was spam.
100% disagreement, partial disagreement, wrong click, all are possibilities, but we are human beings and we can disagree and make mistakes in our operations.
If you call it spam, you can't have a discussion.
Of course, mistakes in operation are not spam.
Also, let's say, for example, a player wants a couchwayspot, so he nominates a low-quality garbagewayspot and it gets approved.
A player happens to pass by and reports it for deletion, and it is approved, so the wayspot is deleted.
I was harassed for this kind of thing! There are people in the real world who say, "I was harassed!
And recently, I don't know if it was because I uploaded a photo that had nothing to do with that wayspot, but it was removed all together and I received a 30-day ban at almost the same time, some people talked about it.
They were harassed by Niantic and the Wayfarer team! You are ranting about it, aren't you?
Influencers of one particular game in particular are ranting badly.
One of the ambassadors was very polite about it, but they were harassed! and don't link Wayfarer to the game! and "Don't link Wayfarer to the game!
It's all very subjective. It is not objective.
Please keep that in mind before you speak.
I am sorry to hear that.
I can fully understand your feelings as I have had a gym battle in the past where I was followed by a PGO trainer in a car for about a 1km chased.
If you don't see why this matters for you, then good for you. If somebody needs this option, do you need to understand it?
Could you maybe just accept that this is a problem for some? Do you like having options yourself? Because, even if you don't care, you can still show your name on a portal. But if someone has insecurities about spraying their name all over certain areas (more than we already do by playing the game) - why would you not respect that and let them have that option? The option that does not affect you in any way? Literally what will be taken from you by others having an extra option that makes them feel more comfortable?
Hey, thanks for commenting, but please stay on the topic. We are not discussing PoGO here - and even if you wanted to make that comparison, the point here would be that in PoGO, you DO have the option to be anonymous on created Pokéstops.
Luckily you seem to have come to the conclusion yourself that this is not about PoGO and PokéCoins... So moving on.
I have to mark some of your statements as red flags. If someone is experiencing OR fearing harassment while playing Ingress or whatever game, that has to be taken seriously. You don't know everyone, you don't know everyone's situation or gaming community or whatever else can influence how they experience playing these games. As written in the previous comment (above, to another person), you have to be really careful about thinking others don't deserve options just because YOU yourself do not need those options. Just be glad you're fine without them and scroll on?
Oh, and I have no idea what you're talking about in the whole last part of that message, @tp235-ING ... Who's ranting about what, and what influencers and what the what 30-day ban?
And while it's always lovely to Meet & Greet, Niantic is still missing from the equasion.
Anytime you're ready, @NianticAaron @NianticTintino-ING @NianThib @NianticLC @NianticOren @NianticRN @Niantic.
This post is from JULY 15TH. And I know you see the tags, guys.
I happily leave my username on my submissions as I'm ok with that, I do however have the choice.
My opinion is irrelevant though if someone else isn't happy with that and not having the choice *And* being completely ignored then I'll like and bump their threads as much as possible.
Looking around the Ingress Community Specialist was last on the forums on August 25th, and the Director for it on September 28th.
Been a while though. Community specialist... away for more than a month.
But yeah, this post. I like having my agent name on certain things like photos (because they're most definitely improvements from the original) so I pride myself in as such. Also particularly in missions as the creator (which I've stopped because of the endless bogus rejection reasons by Niantic mission reviewers that the Second Sunday/First Saturday banner descriptions are irrelevant or I'm using a third-party photo which is a complete lie), it's nice to see the contributor recognised.
I however don't like my pogo name on things because I had been previously threatened via Campfire for replacing a beloved gym that was completely removed and reported with a Pokestop in the same cell and my pogo username happened to be on that. I also tend to submit some borderline nominations (exercise gyms, award-winning restaurants, picnic tables, even cycling markers) that although Pogoers generally don't mind what they're spinning (such as this gem below), I've come across an individual or two who are hell-bent on wayspot quality at my own detriment.
You know the drill. Not bat an eye when a whole bunch of new Pokestops appear in the local community, report the gym (a LFL in the front of a primary school) and use the whole bunch of new Pokestops (submitted via Pogo) to identify the submitter since they also appeared at the same time the gym moved and abuse them to heck. I probably just ruffled the feathers of a singular vocal salty Pogo-er (which happens more often than Ingress players, probably because of the volume of them).
Completely understand the need and preference to toggle by username. In fact, maybe they would allow codename/username display by Niantic ID or choose whatever username across all games. Although I don't believe that Wayfarer is properly integrated with Niantic ID which is a shame. I'd toggle name display by Ingress as on, Pogo off.
@Johnsonsine-ING
It is merely a possibility.
And it is a leap of faith to think that a codename on a photo of a portal or PokéStop could lead to harassment.
Your codename can be seen by others throughout the game.
In Ingress, every time you destroy a portal with a burster, capture it, and link portals together to create a control field, it is logged under your codename.
PGO also shows your codename and Pokemon when you attack a Pokemon gym and place your Pokemon in the gym, the codenames of the trainers you fight with in raid battles, and the codenames of your opponents in PvP.
Even in Pikmin and MHNow you can see your opponent's codename in the game.
In other words, you can't hide your codename when you are playing the game.
So, hiding the codename that appears on the wayspot photo will not do anything to prevent harassment.
If there is harassment, it is more likely to come from players who are angry at you for playing, not from seeing your codename on the Ingress Portal.
If there is clear evidence of harassment, you can promptly report it to the management, and the harasser will be penalized. (e.g., verbal abuse of you at COMM).
Also, if you are saying that you have been harassed because of the deletion of portals you have named one after another, or the modification of your location, title, or description, then you are wrong.
I don't call it harassment because the deletion of wayspots and the modification of their locations, titles and descriptions are all done by Wayfarer review or Wayfarer staff.
No one player can do that on their own.
P.S
If a number of PGO influencers nominate a Pokéstop or upload a photo, " PGO accounts can be banned for 30 days for unfair cheating, and this is an overreach by the Wayfarer team. And this is an overreach by the Wayfarer team," they told the PGO trainers.
And they think this is harassment by Niantic and the Wayfarer team.
Well, they are wrong, since the TOS originally stated that cheaters would be banned from their accounts.
On the other hand, if the Wayfarer team had correctly applied the TOS and banned game accounts in 2020, we would have a different situation with falsely created cluster wayspots, the current Dutch bot, and a worldwide flood of low quality wayspots.
@NianticAaron your response, please. Just coming into this thread and closing it without any single response doesn't count as targeted 50% forum engagement.
You really don't want to understand this, do you?
Again, this is about privacy in Wayfarer. The option is there in PoGO, the option is NOT there in Ingress.
You don't know anything about the situation and yet, you blabber on. Just stop.
Why are you so hellbent on invalidating the experiences of others (which you have absolutely no knowledge of)?
@NianticTintino-ING & co.
So... You make a post in 2021 about giving users consent options as to what we want to display on Wayspots etc - then you decide to ignore the fact that the settings do not work, and then you continue to ignore people posting about this for MONTHS?
Help me understand. Help me understand why you don't think users deserve those options anyway. Help me understand why you changed the wording, not the problem. Help me understand why you did so secretly, without making any announcement. And for crying out loud, help me understand why you and your team finds it perfectly acceptable to ignore me and other posters, and to KEEP ignoring us, even though we do everything we can to just get minimal respect from you: A response. Not even asking for anything that makes sense. Not expecting that anymore either. But it's bizarre at this point, that you just won't show common respect and give a reply. Just anything really, it's WEIRD at this point.
Yeah, I'm tired. I never signed up for Wayfarer to sit in some forum and socialize*. If the Wayfarer team's job does not include helping Wayfarer users, then what are we supposed to do?
*Don't get me wrong, I have gotten tons of helpful responses and feedback from other users here, and many thanks for that to those other users, but I don't see why they have to handle inquiries made to Niantic? Because that is what is happening.
Oh, and PS: I am not stopping before you reply. I don't think that is unreasonable of me. I do however find this quite exhausting.
@NianticTintino ...BUMP!!
@NianticTintino ☹️
Did someone also complained with the privacy officer of Niantic, at dpo@nianticlabs.com ?
In their privacy policy, under "1. Who decides how your information is used?" that's mentioned as their primary source of contact. Since @Johnsonsine-ING has concerns on how the personal data is being used, and don't get enough information regarding this matter from regular Niantic support, that would be a step to take.
Wayfarer is just a messenger in this case and doesn't publicize the information within Ingress.
Just my 5 cents, but the possibility to hide one's username from wayspots is one of the (many) reasons why the quality of wayspots have plummeted.
If there wasn't any legal obligation to do so (don't know if there is), and I was a dictator of Wayfarer, I would NOT allow username masking in any games to keep up the quality.
Yeah, you may disagree and not everyone would like it, but that is my opinion.
Of course I know this is and won't ever be the case. Just wanted to remind that there were next to none problems pre-Pokemon Go when Ingress users always had their IGN visible in wayspots (portals). One always had the opportunity to opt out from nominating anything if they didn't want their username to pop up, for whatever reasons.
I may have to try that, thank you. It's quite serious, I think, that we can't just get help from Niantic easily to handle this problem.
I also have to maintain my strong concern about the complete silence from the Niantic team in situations like this one.
It's not like they have not had a chance to see this post, consider it, and respond within a reasonable time. I will always think of this silence as an extremely disrespectful and strange way of treating your "valued members of the community".
They also need to address the fact that they just silently changed the wording, not the actual problem here. And made no communication about the change.
Even if the email you mentioned is where we should go with this, Niantic staff here could have pointed us towards that. They could also be extra cool and contact the person, since they know "inside Niantic" more than I ever will. But no. Just silence.
At this point, it's just like a strange bet or competition or whatever, like "How long can this go on?" Will we get to 6 months with no answer? A year? More?
If you're going to contact to the privacy officer, I think it would be a good idea to keep it to the facts, be friendly, and be aware that the person perhaps won't even play Ingress and / or Pokemon Go, and isn't aware of any forum discussions.
The DPO is acting outside of Niantic support, so you don't have much to do with support anyhow. If the DPO doesn't respond within a timely fashion, you can escalate further with privacy authorities.
But if you want to follow that route, I can only suggest to take one step at a time.
For what it is worth think it is also worth flagging the trust and safety team
unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a direct contact point for them, but flagging it as such in a can you help email under data protection might find a way through🤞
PS ambassadors do keep trying.
Ingress has made it clear they don't respect your privacy. If nothing has changed after all this effort, it likely never will.
This isn't a perfect fix but you could play pogo until you gain Wayfarer access. Can be done quick, during some events it can even be done in a single day. Plenty of 'Go Wayfarers have Ingress accounts basically just for IITC.