Pokémon GO—Sacrificing Privacy to Catch ‘Em All?

Players of Pokémon GO, a wildly popular location-based augmented reality game, may be missing real life threats to their private information. Pokémon GO creates several privacy and security concerns, particularly for children playing the game, including geolocation tracking, excessive collection of personal data and possible sale of such information to third parties, privacy and security professionals told Bloomberg BNA. By collecting geolocation data, Niantic is able to “keep track of anyone, at any time, while they’re playing the game or letting it run in the background,” Asaph Schulman, vice president of marketing at app security company Checkmarx Ltd. in Tel Aviv, told Bloomberg BNA. Additionally, Schulman said, the game’s privacy policy allows Niantic to share aggregate information with third parties, “effectively giving them the right to sell users’ geolocation data.” Continue reading this article on Bloomberg BNA.