"Pokemon Go," the hit mobile AR game from Niantic, has had millions of players around the world jumping into the game to hunt, catch and train virtual Pokemon in real world situations.
As an insanely large amount of players are hooked to the game, Niantic servers have felt the heat. Players face regular issues with the game's servers and its developer is aware of them and working on the fixes for it.
Recent rumours suggested Niantic had taken down the tracker features to ease the strain on its servers. These issues have made players switch to outside apps (also fan-made, third-party apps) that helps track Pokemon.
Users have been cautioned against using it as Business Insider finds out. Using such apps goes against Niantic's "Pokemon Go" policy, and could lead to accounts being permanently banned.
The report also included an excerpt of the policy, which noted that players will not make "...use of any technology or means other than those provided by Niantic or other generally available third-party web browsers (including, without limitation, automation software, bots, spiders, crawlers, data-mining tools, or hacks, tools, agents, engines, or devices of any kind)...."
Meanwhile, it was revealed that amidst all this, Pokemon tracker tool, PokeVision has reached 16 million unique users, which goes on to show the immense popularity of such tools. One of PokeVision's creators told Tech insider that they have had no contact with Niantic, but are ready to shut down PokeVision if the company tells them to.
And Niantic can do exactly that (shutdown) as the terms of service do not allow one to "extract, scrape, index, copy, or mirror." This will also be applicable for PokeWhere, a similar app for iPhone users.
Apps like PokeDetector and Poke Notify do the job of sending push notifications to its users if a Rare Pokemon appears nearby. But these apps require users to enter their game account login and players can also subscribe for their premium services, which is against Niantic's policy, Business Insider noted.
Related: 'Pokemon Go' guide: How to find rare Pokemon using Ingress app's maphack
Players using "Ingress," Niantic's earlier mobile AR game, to hunt Pokemon are well within the legal limits to do it.
Previously, several users installing a Pokemon Go APK were infected by a malware that had a remote access tool DroidJack, which would let attackers take control of the victim's phone.
