Pokemon GO player suggests why to avoid “the new private arbitration agreement”

Pokemon GO's latest patch has come with a new update to its privacy policy. While many players would not have bothered reading such a long policy update, some users on the game's subreddit have noticed details that have them concerned. This change was about the next agreement on the update where players waive their rights to make class action lawsuits for damages against Niantic.

One user on the subreddit, u/DaringDani123, posted about this change to try and alert more players. Thankfully, they also let players know they could opt out of this agreement within the first 30 days after it is agreed to. They warned players by stating:

"Why you should opt out of the new private arbitration agreement"

Why you should opt out of the new private arbitration agreement byu/DaringDani123 inpokemongo

In Niantic's latest update, the privacy agreement includes a section stating that agreeing to this update practically signs away the user's right to file a class-action lawsuit against Niantic directly for damages or otherwise. Rather, disputes in this matter will be done through arbitration.

The process is further explained by u/TrainerSeebus (Image via Reddit)

In this practice, Niantic will choose an arbitration company to negotiate any case a user may file against Niantic. But what does this mean for the community? Some users expressed concern with this practice, but most seem unphased. Arbitration agreements are typically common in a lot of online services, so some users did not see any cause for concern.

Comment byu/DaringDani123 from discussion inpokemongo

u/yeah-sure-ok gave their thoughts on the matter, explaining that arbitration agreements are used in a lot of other common online services. As such, they believed that this sort of change to the policy update was relatively minor given the state of the industry.

A common consensus by a lot of users is that these sorts of situations may be unfortunate, but they do not change much for the current state of the game, as well as how players' support requests will be handled. In terms of gameplay, this simple change in the policy has no bearing on Pokemon GO.

Comment byu/DaringDani123 from discussion inpokemongo

Nevertheless, those who feel uncomfortable with this update can send an email to Niantic stating they would like to opt out of the arbitration agreement. u/frogfellow55 posted a template for users to put into an email, switching out the bracketed words for their respective information, of course.

---

Should users opt out of Pokemon GO's arbitration agreement?

In practice, this agreement has very little impact on the game or user experience itself (Image via Niantic)

While some players may be understandably uneasy about this new alteration of Pokemon GO's user and privacy policy, it has no real impact on the gameplay, nor does it impact Niantic's customer support. Rather, this policy aims toward those who would attempt to sue Niantic in a class-action lawsuit.

Even then, the stability of these sorts of agreements may not hold up in court, so players likely have nothing to worry about in regard to this change. Nonetheless, the ability to opt-out is still available 30 days after the initial agreement to the new policy.

---

For more information on Pokemon GO, check out our other articles:

• Least visually-appealing shinies in Pokemon GO
• Best Rock-type Pokemon for the Battle League
• Tynamo Community Day preparation guide