Action required: allow only images taken from phone camera to be uploaded

patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 4,215 ✭✭✭✭✭

Or any kind of camera. The main point is not to allow images downloaded or taken from screenshots to be uploaded for nominations.

After 'upload existing photo' live in GO, these submitters keep uploading third party images they found from either from Google Images Search, Google Street View, uploaded photos in Google Maps, and even social media. I do reject many of these, only to receive this repeatedly:

I think the photos can be checked based of their EXIF data(?), so why not implement this?

@NianticTintino @NianticDanbocat

Comments

  • patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 4,215 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well that's the flaw, I should admit.

    Until then, should I continue to review at this rate, or just 'follow the current' by ignoring most of the third party image checking? Getting "I'm not a robot" check message constantly is pretty annoying of course. Not to mention I won't get any agreements if other reviewers accept these instead.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think being able to select an "Existing photo" should be a privilege, a function in which you can unlock once you've done enough (good) nominations or photo submissions. I don't know the number, but not everyone deserves to be able to use any sort of photo with the large-scale abuse that happens all throughout.

    Or better yet, implement the compulsory Wayfarer test and gate those functions behind passing the test. Anyone with half a brain who won't use screenshots or Pokemon AR photos are nomination or photo submissions will probably past. The rest of them are probably undeveloped minors.

    I keep on reading that photo reviews don't count for agreements throughout different sources. If so, then they are a complete waste of time. For the record, the majority of photos I take go through very residual editing, because for some reason the camera default app that Pogo/Ingress uses has far worse quality and is more prone to blurring than taking a photo not in-app (i.e. the native camera app) and then selecting that photo as an existing.

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @patsufredo-PGO why do you reject this photos? How are you able to filter out what was taken by a camera of the person that submits and what was taken by another person, uploaded to the interwebs?

    For myself, i sometimes upload photos to google maps and streetview.

    How do you ascertain that one has taken this photo from google maps and used it as a photo for a Wayspot?

    I simply have choosen to use the photo for both gmaps and wayfarer.

    Also, how would you know that the IMG-Picture from the camera does contain the photo that it originally was taken? You can easily mount another photo onfront of an Existing Taken Photo with EXIF-Data.

    If Niantic would make it so that people are only allowed to upload photos from a smartphone that contain EXIF, the people that are up to shenenigans would already have changed their submissions according to that.

  • TrevorAlan-PGOTrevorAlan-PGO Posts: 998 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Overall I do love the feature, it allows me to "remote" nominate things so I don't have to stand at a place awkwardly. Since using the built-in camera is MUCH quicker than fiddling around with the submission flow in PoGo. Also I can crop and "edit" photos before submitting (remove people or extraneous objects, etc).

    I'm still a huge advocate for this dang pre-submission test... rolling out... for EVERYONE who has not taken the reviewer's test. Where is it guys (Niantic)???

    I guess the only thing that would be a way to help curb the junk that is starting to show up is 1. somehow recognize screenshots (based on resolution and aspect ratio of image at least) and 2. reverse image search, either with Google Images or TinEye.

    TinEye at least has an API for it, (and was release before Google images had a reverse search), IDK if Google has a third party API hook. Screenshot identification would be probably the least complicated thing to implement?

  • patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 4,215 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Doesn't that count as third party images once uploaded into Maps? And, from reviewers' POV how do we know if the photos were uploaded by the same person (unless in some cases where photos were uploaded in Maps several days/months ago indicating the nominations were possibly submitted in the same time)? Hence I'm asking this in another thread.

    But well, there's another flaw with my idea if Niantic ever implementing this.

  • SlicedPeas-INGSlicedPeas-ING Posts: 336 ✭✭✭✭

    Eh, simple solution for the submitter, don't send the same photo to public databases like Google maps.

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2021
  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    there are things out there in Wayfarer Database for 2-3 years. You wouldnt expect that people just keep their submission photo "Secret and Safe" until it is accepted as a wayspot.

    Meanwhile there are 125 other uploads of the same object at google maps.

  • grendelwulf-INGgrendelwulf-ING Posts: 301 ✭✭✭✭
  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • tp235-INGtp235-ING Posts: 1,383 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you want to do this, you need to stop using existing photos for nominations.

    I basically agree with your opinion, as this feature is currently being abused for fake nominations using composite photos and the like.

    However, when I expressed the same opinion before in terms of preventing false applications, the majority of players said that there is no such fake, that they can detect it, and that this feature should be retained.

    So, it is up to Niantic to decide how it will be done in the future.

  • aleprj-INGaleprj-ING Posts: 565 ✭✭✭✭✭

    As said earlier, it would be better to block screenshots and pictures of screens (should be very easy to detect these) and also duplicates of a existing POI picture (very easy to implement in a efficient way using hashes).

    Then it could evolve to checking for very similar but not identical pictures and the image search. Maybe flag them and show in review instead of rejecting automatically? (Show in the review page that similar images were found and so on).

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    As i said somewhere else these days, Niantic a) isnt bothered with this and b) doesnt have the funds to implement things like that.

    The whole topic isnt something they are looking into.

  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2021

    Doing the above would **** nominations for me on iPhone. iPhone doesn’t let you change the resolution or scale photos using the default camera or photo apps. Using smaller photos from screenshots (of my own photos) or 3rd party apps is the only way I can avoid timing out when trying to upload nominations. And there’s have been too many bugs with lost or messed up contributions using “upload later”, I don’t trust it.

  • aleprj-INGaleprj-ING Posts: 565 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So you take a screenshot of the picture to reduce the resolution? Interesting...

    But anyway, if it would block screenshots of the games it would already be a progress I guess.

  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,469 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @grendelwulf-ING I frequently apply light edits to my photos before submitting them. Sometimes it's as simple as cropping, or fixing the fact that even though my photography has hung on gallery walls I'm apparently incapable of holding a camera level. Often I make minor corrections to color and contrast so that the photo looks like what I see with my eyes-- phone cameras are far better than they were a few years ago but they're still making educated guesses and sometimes they get it wrong. I'm not altering the substance of the photo when I do this-- my purpose is to make the games better by submitting photos that are visually appealing and accurately represent what's being submitted. Do you really think a photo should be rejected because I fixed the white balance?

    @patsufredo-PGO A third-party photo is one that you haven't taken yourself, so no I don't think that uploading a photo to Google Maps or anywhere else turns it into a third-party photo unless you've explicitly turned over all rights to the photo in doing so. It certainly makes it harder for reviewers to figure out if the photo was truly taken by the submitter, though.

  • 1253mi-PGO1253mi-PGO Posts: 49 ✭✭

    "Upload existing photo" is FANTASTIC!!

    I have to upload in Japanese and it takes time to write. The game crashed when I left to search phrases. Was frustrating to say the least.

    Now I can take photos, make a Photosphere if need be and then go somewhere to look things up and write my nomination. Great for things within 10km of home (since we can't drag the POI pin any further away.) If it's a place I won't get to for a while I usually upload right away and edit later on... but I've had several get into voting before I got to them.

    I've rejected the screenshot photos that I've seen as poi photos because the POI was too small in the photos. I don't understand why people nominate a POI as something of interest but don't even get close to it for their photos.

  • Ochemist-INGOchemist-ING Posts: 355 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There is nothing wrong with using images such as collages for the supporting image. I know of at least two worthy submissions that were only approved after the submitters combined several images into collages to make their cases.

    I have also in a few cases edited supporting photos by circling pertinent details to help confirm the location. I have also used (so far unsuccessfully) a screenshot from a website as my supporting image to prove something wasn't PRP.

    There are lots of very legitimate uses for edited, merged, and non-photographic images as the supporting image.

  • URWhatUKnow-INGURWhatUKnow-ING Posts: 84 ✭✭✭


    Or, simple solution for the reviewers: Just review the candidate. That's it. This isn't CSI, it's WF.


    Imagine living in a day and age where a rando mcrando is telling people what to do and what not to do with THEIR own photos 🤡

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Imagine living in a world where people find out that Niantic Products are entertainment only. You cannot eat their produce and they dont heat your living room.

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