PokemonGo has permissions for your camera, location, and supposedly email. A quick google search shows that even the camera permissions suggest that access is required at all times. Additionally, there is no mention on how the data from the camera is stored or used. Lastly, in the terms of service it says that they can disclose this data "…to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate: (a) to respond to claims, legal process (including subpoenas); (b) to protect our property, rights, and safety and the property, rights, and safety of a third party or the public in general; and (c) to identify and stop any activity that we consider illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity."
Now imagine this:
You're a drug lord with piles of illegal drugs and cash laying around the house. You also have a couple kids with their own phones playing PokemonGo.
The kids go about scanning throughout the house looking for Pokemon but they happen to scan your stash which is data that they collect. Now if what they say about the NSA and government agencies being able to spy through users' phones is true, then your kids playing PokemonGo pretty much just scanned and gave out the location of all the illegal stuff that you have.
Now for most citizens they are not doing anything illegal or don't have anything to hide. However, I think it's still a big deal that a centralized service is collecting data of personal stuff that you have with your location. Even if their intentions are good, what if that centralized service that collects that info is hacked and leaked? Are you comfortable with people you don't know knowing what you have inside your house even if nothing is illegal? If you have Trump posters in your bedroom or other personal items that can identify you to a group which can put you on a list or make you a target of a hate crime, shouldn't you be worried?
I mean we see stories in the news of the kids of celebrities flashing bling and exposing their own parents for tax evasion. One example are kids posting their parents hidden assets on Instagram trying to brag but ends up backfiring here: http://metro.co.uk/2016/04/06/rich-kids-of-instagram-have-been-giving-away-their-parents-naughty-tax-secrets-5799513/
Most people are not aware of this but if you're on here reading this, then now you are.
@sephiroth, I like the way you think. I pretty much think of it as invasion to private life of wide range of people. I think will hear about a lot of cases with exposing by PokemonGO.
I made some investigation and it turned out that one of the major investors of PokemonGo is CIA (I'll tell about it in further posts). And surprisingly I faced the [news that Edward Snowden was (
https://medium.com/@jeremybornstein/edward-snowden-captured-b3cac4ad389c#.e261g227n) captured in Moscow (where he is hiding for several years) when he was hunting rare pokemons).