“If, in fact, some of the information collected and/or permissions requested by Pokemon GO are unnecessary for the provision of services, would Niantic consider making this collection/access opf-in, as opposed to requiring a user to opt-out of the collection/access?” The game’s exploding popularity has sent people into bars and pizzerias, led to the discovery of a dead body and may even be helping robbers target victims.
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“Pokemon GO has further indicated that it shares de-identified and aggregate data with other third parties for a multitude of purposes”.
Pokemon Go remains hugely popular around the world despite the early problems with the server crashing because of the sheer number of players. “Are there any other purposes for which Pokemon GO collects all of this information?” The project had the full support of Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s president who died a year ago.
“Iwata-san and John (Hanke) spoke several times”, Kawashima said in an interview. “That left a strong impression on me”. Oh, and it also asks new user to provide “all access” to their Google accounts upon download. Niantic’s privacy policy in contrast would allow access to a user’s entire google account, including their gmail.
What “Pokemon Go” fans are being prepared for is the idea of placing Pokespots in more public, and familiar locations. That’s also strikingly similar to Iwata’s vision.
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Android and iOS users in Germany can now download Pokemon Go from the app stores the easy way, without having to turn to all kinds of tricks to get it. Until now, Niantic’s mobile phenomenon was only available in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, but millions of users downloaded it already either by getting the APK on Android or by switching to the USA store on iOS.
