Pokemon Go and Where Not to get It
Pokémon Go is the highly anticipated, augmented reality, mobile-game that was released for the US and Australasia earlier this month. Born from a partnership of development between Nintendo and Niantic, Pokémon Go allows you to foster pocket monsters after catching them in real-life locations.
So far the game has been a huge hit, and is now more popular than Tinder (because why would you want to risk catching syphilis or gonorrhea when you can catch Pikachu instead).
Pokémon Go was released on July 6th for Android and iOS devices, and by July 8 it had been installed on eight percent of all Android devices in the US.
Despite some server hiccups, Pokémon Go has been extremely successful thus far – which has lead many people, who don’t yet have access to the game, to find alternative ways to download it.
There have been many different methods people have used, but one of the most common, and dangerous ones, is known as “side-loading.”
Side-loading involves downloading the file from a third-party app or website that hosts the files, as well as file-sharing networks such as Bit Torrent. Technically, since the game is free to play, this isn’t considered piracy.
However, many of the third-party versions of Pokémon Go have been found to contain malware that can seriously damage the device the files are downloaded on.
One specific type of malware that was linked to Pokémon Go was called DroidJack, which has been linked to developers in India. Apparently DroidJack has the ability to: view all messages on a device, listen to all voice calls on a device, listen live or record audio from a device’s microphone, control a device’s camera, and obtain a device’s last known GPS location.
The DroidJack-ed version of Pokémon Go doesn’t run any differently the than official version of the game, but the app’s permissions will be different than the official app, including: record audio, directly call phone numbers, read call log, read your web bookmarks and history.
Another risk with side-loading Pokémon Go is the risk of being banned from using the game, which is classified as ‘cheating’ according to the “Trainer Guidelines.”
This isn’t Niantic’s or Nintendo’s fault. In classic Nintendo fashion, they act unaware to the extreme popularity of their software mascots and did not expect such interest in the game. Since everyone is able to use the servers, even in places the game was not yet made available, Niantic struggles to keep the game live in many areas of the world.
Fortunately, trainers from outside the US and Australasia, who aren’t willing to side-load the game, won’t have to wait long. Pokémon Go is expected to be released in Canada, Europe and Asia before the end of July, if Niantic can find the server space, *cough*Amazon Prime Day*cough*.
