Pokémon GO

Is Pokémon GO safe?

Pokémon GO is safe enough for most families, with one trade-off you cannot switch off: it is a game about where you are. It needs your precise location to work, and it remembers how you move. In return, it avoids the main danger of most online games. There is no open text or voice chat, so strangers cannot message your child inside the game.

We score it 60/100. That puts it above Fortnite (57) and Roblox (55), which have open chat, and below Minecraft (69), which collects much less.

Location data and the new owner

Apple's label for Pokémon GO is long. Device IDs are listed as used to track you across other companies' apps, for third-party advertising. Precise location, fitness data, contacts, photos or videos, email, purchases, gameplay content and customer support records are all linked to you. The privacy policy, effective 20 August 2026, says the company identifies your location using GPS, nearby Wi-Fi and other signals, and uses it to run the game and to place resources such as PokéStops, including sponsored locations near you.

The policy also sets some limits. It says the company does not sell or share personal data as California's privacy law defines those terms. Targeted ads run only outside the US, and the sponsored gifts inside the game can be switched off in the settings. Fitness data from Apple Health or Google Fit is not used for marketing.

Ownership changed in 2025. On 29 May 2025 Scopely completed its $3.5 billion purchase of Niantic's games business, including Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now and the Campfire and Wayfarer apps. Scopely is a wholly owned company of Savvy Games Group, whose board is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who also chairs the Public Investment Fund. 404 Media pointed out at the time that none of the deal announcements said what would happen to players' location data. The policy now names Scopely Explore, says data is likely to be stored outside your home country, including in the US, and states that the rename brought "no changes to how we use or share data". We found no evidence that data has gone anywhere it should not. Still, the people who now control the world's best-known location game are not the ones who built it.

The scanning question

In November 2024 Niantic said it was building a "Large Geospatial Model" from player scans of real places. Its own editor's note said the scans came only from players who chose to visit a public location and tap to scan, and that walking around playing does not train an AI model. Niantic kept that mapping technology in a separate company, Niantic Spatial, when it sold the games. The current privacy policy says that if you contribute routes or images of public places, the company may use them to improve its products. If you do not want to contribute, skip the scan tasks.

Risks for children

Pokémon GO has fewer contact risks than most popular games. Players can add friends by code, trade and send gifts, and join raids, but there is no open chat in the game. Campfire, the companion app, adds messaging and meetups, so check whether your child uses it.

Children under 13 cannot have a normal account. They need a Pokémon Trainer Club account or a Kids account that a parent sets up and verifies through a portal run by KWS, a member of the kidSAFE Seal Program, an FTC-approved COPPA safe harbor. Parents can then control features such as friend lists.

The everyday risks are physical and financial. Players walk while looking at the screen, into roads and onto private property, and raids bring strangers to the same spot. Spending is the other. PokéCoins, raid passes and event tickets (often $4.99 on the US App Store) are small purchases that add up.

How to play more safely

1. On your phone, set location access for Pokémon GO to "While using the app" unless you want Adventure Sync step counts.
2. For a child under 13, create the account yourself through the parent portal and review which features are on.
3. Turn off sponsored gifts in the game settings if you do not want location-based ads.
4. Turn on Ask to Buy on iPhone or require a password for purchases on Android.
5. Agree on safe places to play, stay out of roads while looking at the screen, and do not go to raids alone at night.
6. Never buy or sell accounts. Account sales break the rules and are a common way to lose money and your login.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (88) is the strongest factor: we found no fine or order, and no regulator action over the 2025 sale. Scams and harmful content (66) and transparency and control (68) are helped by having no open chat and by parent-verified child accounts. Privacy (45) is the weakest, because the game collects precise location by design and lists device IDs for advertising.