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TechThe Mobile Executive

Here’s Why Some Banned Pokémon Go Accounts Will Be Reinstated

By
Evan Slead
Evan Slead
and
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
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By
Evan Slead
Evan Slead
and
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 30, 2016, 9:28 AM ET
Pokemon GO Fans Converge At Sydney Opera House
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 20: Pokemon GO players meet at Sydney Opera House on July 20, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. The Opera House hosted a Pokemon gathering, adding lures to all nearby Pokestops. The augmented reality app requires players to look for Pokemon in their immediate surroundings with the use of GPS and internet services turning the whole world into a Pokemon region map. The hugely popular app has seen Nintendo shares soar following its limited release in the US, Australia and New Zealand on July 6. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)Photograph by Brendon Thorne — Getty Images

Pokémon Go is lifting bans on some flagged accounts, but not all.

Starting in August, Niantic Labs began banning players who violated the terms of use of the mobile game. The most notable of the penalties came from players who used third-party tracking apps, allowing them to find Pokémon with unfair ease. This ranged from simple add-on maps to tricking the GPS in the game.

The developers posted an update on their official website Monday, which details the reasoning behind the original decision to penalize players.

“Some players may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon. Each end-user app can be used as a collection tool by the app creator, invisibly collecting and forwarding data without the knowledge of the end user,” stated Niantic’s CEO John Hanke.

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“Because of this we have had to ban some accounts associated with using these add-on map tools, leading to confusion by some users about why they were banned.” Hanke noted this affected a small group of users, with a majority of the bans given to players using GPS-spoofing technology to falsify their location.

For more, read: Pokémon Go is Stalling Out—Probably Because There’s Not Much Game There

As a result of some changes made to our infrastructure, we are now able to unban this set of accounts,” stated Hanke. Moving forward, the trainers who tested add-on map technology will regain access to their accounts, while the players who used GPS-spoofing technology will still be banned. “Accounts which used apps or websites to remotely capture Pokémon, battle or deploy on Gyms, or harvest resources from PokéStops are also not being unbanned.”

This story originally appeared on EW.com.

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By Evan Slead
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By Entertainment Weekly
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