Violating the ToS

I'm following, and participating in, a genuinely interesting conversation about cheating.

So why not use the word 'cheating' in the topic header? Well, violating ToS is easier to define. By violating the ToS you're usually cheating, but not always. In order to cheat you need to be playing the game in the first place and not all violations of the ToS automatically mean the perpetrator is playing Pokemon Go at all.

First of all I'll pretend that 100% of the ToS is valid everywhere. That is almost certainly not true. Different parts of it may be in direct violation of national or local legislation in an area that Niantic has publicly declared as part of their market. In those cases parts of or all of the ToS are invalid depending on local law.


Personally I'm of the opinion that different types of violations are of different severity, but that is my own personal opinion and nothing else.

There are, however, clear indications that Niantic themselves, rank different types of violations. Some offences result in, at most, 'please don't continue doing this', and others result in the immediate removal of the acount.


I'll start with the more obvious ones and descend into ToS violations most players won't even understand as such.

I won't include beating the crap out of players you don't like, even though it's explicitly included as a violation of the ToS. Basically I won't go into the social aspects of the game that are in violation of the ToS.


Reverse engineering

Downloading the game and using digital tools to extract information that wasn't mean to be seen by the player.

Using said tools to find out how the underlying code works.


GPS spoofing

Inserting location data into the game in order to have your avatar stationed at a geographical area different than the one where your phone is.

Frequently used to catch pokemon, access pokestops and participating in gym battles from your home instead of being outdoors.


Multiaccing

Playing with more than one account.

Mostly used for gym battles. The three account setup is probably standard. The account you play on. One account where you collect easy to prestige on pokemon. One rival account to kick out those easy to prestige on pokemon.

Sometimes used for fully populating a gym to level 10.


Account sharing

Playing with an account other than your own. Similar to, but not the same as multiaccing.

Mostly used to catch rare pokemon for friends or relatives.

Often used to help family members, usually your children.

Sometimes used for gym battling.


Trackers

Any solution that allows you to locate a pokemon in a place that you cannot reach in-game from where you are currently located.

Usually in the form of webservices. Basically maps where you see the the location of one or more pokemon.

Includes any kind of semiautomatic information network, ie chats, twitterfeeds or similar where people manually report sightings.

In extreme cases would include receiving a phonecall from a friend telling you to move your arse to somewhere else.


IV calculators

Used to find out the stats of your pokemon.

There are apps doing it automatically.

Websites where you can input the data you see in-game can be used.

A simple spreadsheet with datamined information is another form.

Using pen and paper together with datamined information also counts.


Data aggregation

Any information repository displaying information about Pokemon Go you can't access in-game (not made public by Niantic or official associates to Niantic).

Any website where you can read about potential future changes to the game, based on data extracted by means of reverse engineering the code.

Any website where you can read about what movesets a given pokemon potentially can have, its base stats or maximum CP.

Any ranking list of pokemon attacks based on the behaviour of the attacks. Not to speak about writing out the behaviour of the attacks.

Any list of pokedex entries listing exactly which pokemon goes into what slot.

This blog (and any similar information outlet).


And last, what's not a violation of the ToS:

Systematically walking around with a friend belonging to a rival team and booting out the lowest CP pokemon in level ten gyms in order to make place for your own. Both players will gain immensely from this for the lowest possible effort.