Ranked #7 of 15 in Game Adventure
Red Flags
2"Any information that you provide on or to a Third-Party Service or that is collected by a Third-Party Service is provided directly to the owner or operator of the Third-Party Service and is subject to the owner's or operator's privacy policy. We're not responsible for the content, privacy, or security practices and policies of any Third-Party Service."
Niantic disclaims all responsibility for data shared with or collected by third-party services integrated into its platform, despite directing users to those services.
Warnings
6"We collect and use your device location information as you use our Services (and, if you elect to turn on background location tracking for participating Services, while you are not directly interacting with these Services), including how you move around and events that occur during in app activity or gameplay. We identify your location using a variety of technologies, including GPS, the WiFi points you are accessing the Service through and mobile/cell tower triangulation."
Niantic tracks your location using GPS, WiFi, and cell tower triangulation both during active use and in the background if enabled, creating a detailed record of your real-world movements.
"We also collect and use your in-game or in-app actions and achievements, as well as certain information about your mobile device (including device identifiers, device OS, model, configuration, settings, and information about third-party applications or software installed on your device), to operate the Services for you and to personalize your gameplay and user experience."
Niantic collects information about third-party applications installed on your device and broad device configuration data, which goes beyond what's needed for core game functionality.
"We engage external Service Providers to work with us to administer and provide the Services. These external Service Providers have access to your Personal Data only for the purpose of performing services on our behalf. The Service Providers we use help us to: run, operate, and maintain our Services; perform content moderation and crash analytics; run email and mobile messaging campaigns; perform game, app, and marketing analytics; prevent and detect fraud; provide measurement and advertising services to us, including by targeting ads on third-party sites."
Niantic shares personal data with a wide range of service providers for analytics, advertising, marketing campaigns, and measurement services, creating broad third-party exposure of user data.
"Using your IP address, browser type, operating system, the web page you were visiting before accessing our Services, the pages of our Services which you browsed or the features you used, and the time spent on those pages or features, the links on our Services that you click on, device and advertising identifiers, age, as well as actions you take during gameplay, your in-app user settings, preferences (including avatar characteristics), and your in-app purchases to learn about our users."
Niantic collects device and advertising identifiers, referrer URLs, and browsing behavior across its services, enabling cross-service and cross-site user profiling and tracking.
"We keep your Personal Data for as long as we need to provide the Services to you and fulfill the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. This is also the case for anyone that we share your information with and who carry out services on our behalf. When we no longer need to use your Personal Data and there is no need for us to keep it to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, we will either remove it from our systems or anonymize it."
No specific retention periods are provided — data is kept indefinitely as long as Niantic deems it necessary, and the same open-ended standard applies to all third-party service providers.
"Any Personal Data that we collect is covered by the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. You will be given reasonable notice of any material change."
Niantic can change the privacy policy at any time with only vaguely defined 'reasonable notice' and no requirement for user consent to the new terms.