Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are that you have heard of the international buzz around the new augmented reality app, Pokemon Go. As millions of smartphone owners in the UAE and around the world hunt for virtual Pokemon in real-life locations, there have been warnings by the Abu Dhabi Police and others about the danger of users being injured by inadvertently walking into objects or on to busy roads.
But there is another risk of the app that is less tangible but potentially more serious: the amount of personal information users unwittingly give to the app’s developers. Until the arrival of a software fix, those using the app on iOS with a Google account will be giving the app automatic access to their email and location history.
Pokemon Go may be free to download, but it is perhaps gamers’ personal information that is the currency with which the product is bought. With advertisers’ relentless pursuit of such information, maybe privacy is the rarest Pokemon of all?