Niantic, Inc. built Pokémon GO and other location-based AR games; in 2025 it sold its games business to Scopely (backed by Savvy Games Group), and by mid-2026 the operative privacy policy at nianticlabs.com/privacy is published under 'Scopely Explore, Inc. (formerly Niantic, Inc.)', confirming the transfer is completed rather than pending. The policy discloses continuous foreground location collection plus optional background location tracking used to power core gameplay (e.g. PokéStop placement), identified via GPS, WiFi and cell-tower triangulation. It states Scopely Explore does not sell personal data under state privacy laws, but does run non-targeted in-app advertising and, outside the United States only, targeted advertising via device identifiers — consistent with Pokémon GO's own App Store privacy label, which discloses Identifiers as 'Data Used to Track You' across apps and a broad 'Data Linked to You' set (Location, Health & Fitness, Contacts, User Content, Usage Data). The policy also commits to breach-notification procedures. No FTC or state-AG order specific to Niantic/Pokémon GO privacy practices was found in this research (an FTC site search returned no matching action).
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Beyond location, Pokémon GO's App Store privacy label discloses a broad 'Data Linked to You' set collected under the developer's own account system: Health & Fitness, Purchases, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data and Diagnostics, corroborating the policy's account-data disclosures with a second, independent self-declared source.
Niantic/Scopely Explore's privacy policy states it collects device location continuously while games are in use, plus optional background location tracking when users enable it for participating services, identified via GPS, WiFi access points and cell-tower triangulation, and ties this directly to core gameplay features like PokéStop placement in Pokémon GO.
Niantic's live privacy policy page now identifies 'Scopely Explore, Inc. (formerly Niantic, Inc.)' at a San Francisco, CA address as the data controller for the games business (with a UK entity, formerly Niantic International Limited, as EU/UK controller), self-disclosing that the 2025 sale of Niantic's games business to Scopely has closed rather than remaining pending.
The policy states Scopely Explore does not sell personal data as defined by state privacy laws (so it does not offer a sale opt-out), while a separate clause discloses targeted advertising via device identifiers outside the United States and non-targeted in-app advertising domestically, plus a standard business-transfer clause covering personal data in a future merger or acquisition.
The privacy policy commits to breach-response procedures, stating the company will notify users and applicable regulators of a data breach where legally required; no FTC enforcement action or press-released regulator order specific to Niantic/Pokémon GO privacy practices was found in an FTC site search at draft time.
Pokémon GO's own Apple App Store privacy-nutrition label discloses Identifiers under 'Data Used to Track You' (cross-app/cross-site tracking) and a wide 'Data Linked to You' category set including Location, Health & Fitness, Contacts, User Content, Usage Data and Diagnostics.