Despite the Niantic Games takeover, all Pokémon GO location data will remain protected
, by Thibaut
Last week, Niantic's gaming arm was sold for $3.5 billion to Scopely. Since this company is owned by Savvy Games Group, itself financed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, fears had begun to spread.
Internet users are worried that the Saudi government is recovering their location data from Pokémon GO*. In an interview, Michael Steranka, Director of Products at Niantic, reassured everyone on the matter.
"All of this stays in the United States. All of this will never leave the country. And it's not something that's shared with Savvy or anything. In fact, Scopely itself is sort of entirely independently owned and operated. So there are enough layers of separation that you can be sure all your data stays on servers in the US. Also, as I mentioned, we get rid of all that data once it's no longer needed to run the game."
Contrary to what people may think, Steranka asserts that Niantic does not keep any data "beyond what is necessary to run the game". Last but not least, the developers have no plans to introduce pop-up ads into its games either.