Like the VZBV, Franken said he was worried that Niantic was not getting “appropriate consent” from its users. senator Al Franken also asked Niantic to better explain how it collects and uses players’ data, and with whom it might share that data. Once your account is linked, you can use that login provider to sign into your Pokmon GO account. Germany has always had very enthusiastic defenders of data privacy-it literally invented the field of data protection law-but it’s not the only country where people are concerned about Pokémon Go. At the top right, tap Settings Under the Account section, select the Not Linked checkbox next to the login provider you would like to connect. According to the VZBV, that’s not acceptable because people in Germany are within the jurisdiction of German and European consumer protection law. If users have any disputes with the game provider, the terms also state that they have to go to arbitration in California, which is not a practical option for people in Europe. “We think is there is not a high enough level of consent in the use of data-these extended rights of giving users’ data away to third parties in circumstances, which are not sufficiently described,” Dünkel told Fortune. The language of the policies is also hard for regular people to understand. For example, the company can amend the terms at any time or discontinue the service without user consent. The VZBV also highlighted various flaws in Niantic’s T&Cs that are regular bugbears for German data protection enforcers. As the game inherently involves a lot of location tracking and can connect with users’ Google (GOOG) accounts, the VZBV is worried that the data involved could be quite sensitive. The federation’s main problem with Pokémon Go‘s terms and conditions is that they give Niantic the right to pass on user data to third parties at the company’s discretion. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. It sent an official legal warning to Niantic on Tuesday evening, according to Heiko Dünkel, the VZBV legal policy officer who wrote the notice. If Niantic does not change those terms in Germany by August 9, the VZBV said it would sue it. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) said on Wednesday that Niantic would need to change 15 of the clauses in its user terms and privacy policy, in order to comply with German privacy and consumer protection law.
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