If you are struggling to find creatures for your Pokémon Go collection on your own, there are several apps available to lead you in the right direction. What you might not know however, is that some of these apps violate the terms of service developer Niantic Labs have set for the game, as these apps are collecting data from Niantic's own servers to pass on to the users.
In addition to putting unnecessary strain on the infrastructure this is not what Niantic Labs set out to deliver with their game, and since launch they have been aggressive in pursuing the problem. Not only are they targeting the apps themselves, they have also been banning players who use them even if those players are not aware of their wrong doing.
"Each end-user app can be used as a collection tool by the app creator, invisibly collecting and forwarding data to the app creator with or without the knowledge of the end user", Niantic writes in an update. "These apps can have an effect similar to DDoS attacks on our servers. 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".
After a change in their internal systems however, Niantic are now able to unban some of the players affected by the problem. The details are not provided, but it appears they now have a way to filter out players who are not purposely breaking the rules. That being said, Niantic still advice caution:
"As a result of some changes made to our infrastructure, we are now able to unban this set of accounts. Add-on maps which scrape data from our servers still violate our Terms of Service and use of them may still result in an account ban going forward. Accounts whose sole purpose was to scrape data are not being unbanned. 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".
In the end the makers of this summer's killer app just want people to enjoy the game on fair terms:
"Our main priority is to provide a fair, fun, and legitimate experience for all players, so, aggressive banning will continue to occur for players who engage in these kinds of activities."