Yes it just shows how easily people will accept any data mining, dont think, zombie transforming, brain cell killing junk.
People live with their faces in their smart phones, luckily ive not seen anyone playing that in my country yet. We have enough problems with drunk drivers and crime in general, dont need this to dumb down the people even more.
It's just for fun. People have made the accusation that entertainment "rots your brain" ever since television was invented in 1927, haha! I haven't seen any news that entertainment makes you dumber. In fact, playing online games like Dota 2 and Counter Strike for over 5 years has sharpened my hand-eye coordination very, very well. I've also met a few awesome people playing video games.
As someone who works in data driven advertising, I can assure you that beyond location / IP and device ID there is not much Pokemon will collect. The drivel that it was accessing all of Google info is absurd - Google will not release this information to anyone, even if you agree to let them. (walled garden). I know because I have used their data for years and would love to access it via other platforms, as would the rest of a $70 billion dollar industry.
Your device ID and IP address, alongside the geo location (if you allow it) are being accessed by absolutely every app you use and are being passed to advertisers via SDKs. Not much is different here. On the plus side you can thank advertising for keeping content affordable / free.
Also, this is correct, I think, but it is important for you all to know that Niantic
does consider whatever data they gather
through this program to be a "business asset," which means they can use, sell, and distribute it as they please. (Pokemon GO Privacy Policy, Section 3.d 2016) For those who are interested, here it is:
https://www.nianticlabs.com/privacy/pokemongo/en/
So that GPS information and whatever else they use to run the app IS collected and can be sold. However, the ONLY information they are able to gather is the data transmitted to them through their app. However, like Tom says, they can't access your Google info or whatever - they just get what the app sends them, and the app does not have permission on your device to access anything else, like your personal info.
I don't get why people freak out about this Pokemon GO craze - I see SO much hate- and fear-mongering against Pokemon all of a sudden that it's making me nauseous.
I just think it's just a fun, exercise-encouraging game to play with friends. In the words of Russian goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov -