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Pokémon GO – 13 details about its terms and conditions

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Gotta catch all your rights and obligations too

Pokémon GO went live less than two weeks ago in just a few countries, but it has already become one of the phenomenons of the year. In fact, it already is the biggest mobile game ever in USA and it is quickly approaching the level of use of services such as Google Maps and Snapchat. All of that in less than two weeks.

The concept is classic Pokémon: you gather the best Pokémon to train them later and compete against different trainers and through tournaments around the world. The huge difference here is that the world is not virtual anymore, now the real world is the playground.

The thing is that thanks to augmented reality, the Pokémon do not live in a virtual world now. Instead they live and walk in the real world. For example, the garden of your neighbor. Through our mobile devices we can locate them (the camera + geolocation), catch them, train them and then compete against the rest of the world.

That means that the immersion and interaction goes through the roof, because to catch the Pokémon you have to physically move to the places where the app points out that they are living. Something that has generated more than a few complaints from players with disabilities, whose options to play get very limited.

When all the planet is the game board and the player needs to move around to play, plenty of things can go wrong. That’s why we already have plenty of crazy stories since the launch of the game: 

And that’s just the beginning…

But let’s go to the point, what do the terms and conditions of Pokémon GO say? Well, its Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Policy and Trainer Guidelines have some very interesting aspects.

Let’s go for it!

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13 details about the privacy of Miitomo

Miitomo y su privacidad

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The first game from Nintendo for mobile

Yesterday Nintendo made history with the worldwide release of its first game for mobiles devices, Miitomo.

A new path for the Japanese company in a category that they almost invented, the portable video game console, but where the landscape has really changed with the appearance of smartphones.

Miitomo is a free game/app, although with micro payments, that allows the user to create an avatar (a Mii) than can be used to play mini games, change clothes, take pictures and communicate with the Miis of our friends. The distinctive feature here is that the Mii that I create will ask me something, I will respond to it and then that answer will be shared with the Miis of my friends. Therefore, the app is a mixed between a video game, a social network and messaging service.

As has already been said, although the app is free, you can buy new content such as clothes. How? Well, you buy this content using the virtual currency from the game. Those coins can be gained by playing mini games, answering questions from the Miis, commenting the answers of your friends or buying them with real money.

On the other hand, and being Nintendo a brand very much associated with children, is interesting to point out that you must be at least 13 years old to play Miitomo.

Therefore, being this the first game from Nintendo for smartphones, and with micro payments, it sounds like a good idea to take a closer look at its privacy.

Miitomo’s Privacy Policy can be found here. Also interesting is the quite long FAQ section for the app.

Let’s go with those 13 details!

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13 services already mentioning the online dispute resolution European platform

Resolución de Conflictos Online

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On March 15th, that means today, we celebrate the World Consumer Rights Day. By coincidence, the European platform for online dispute resolution (or ODR) went live just a month ago.

But, what is this platform about online dispute resolution developed by the European Commission?

The ODR is a one-stop counter for those cases where a user from the European Union (EU) bought online from a service based in the EU, and something went wrong. If the user wants to submit a complaint against the trader (in some countries it can happen the other way around too), and he or she wants to reach an out-of-court settlement, the platform is the meeting point for all the parties involved: the one submitting the complaint, the one receiving it and the dispute resolution body that will deal with it.

This way, the consumer who lives in the EU, that bought something online and who wants to complain for a problem related to that deal, can reach out to this European platform for online dispute resolution so:

  • He or she can submit a complaint.
  • He or she can choose a dispute resolution body to deal with the complaint (although both parties have to agree on and taking into account the country where the consumer lives).
  • The dispute resolution body handles the complaint.
  • The complaint has an outcome.

All of that without abandoning the platform, in the 23 languages from the EU and being always up to date on the complaint or even future ones.

You can find here all the different stages in the procedure.

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