Catching Pokémon and in-game friends’ home addresses

Abstract

While location-based games are widely popular, the interpersonal privacy risks players pose to one another remain under-researched. These risks can lead to harassment and stalking. This paper presents an experimental study investigating how the in-game gift mechanic in Pokémon GO can be exploited to reveal players' sensitive locations. We employed a mixed-methods approach consisting of a 37-day "in-the-wild" play experiment (n=20), questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. Our results demonstrate that in-game gift metadata allowed for the identification of over 60% of participants' home addresses within a 100-meter radius. These findings highlight critical privacy implications for location-based game design and the need for increased user awareness.