Pokémon Go is fundamentally hostile to privacy. It's a real-time location game built on movement data. There's no configuration that makes it "safe." If that's a hard line, the answer is simply no.

If someone still chooses to play, the only defensible approach is containment. Threat model matters here. If your primary phone is your public-facing presence and your threat model allows for that, Pokémon Go can live there.

The principle is isolation and compartmentalization.

You can have a surface-level digital presence that looks unremarkable while keeping anything that actually matters in completely separate, hardened environments.

For most people, that means a secondary device or at minimum a separate Android user profile with actual OS-level isolation. If you're on GrapheneOS, use a dedicated profile with contact and storage scopes disabled. The profile gets a burner Google account solely for Play Store access, completely disconnected from your real identity. No personal data crosses that boundary.

But if your primary device is already your public persona and you keep sensitive work isolated elsewhere, then Pokémon Go just becomes part of that calculated exposure.

The issue isn't that it exists in your life. It's whether it touches anything you actually need to protect.

Permissions stay locked to location only while the app is open. VPNs don't meaningfully help. Niantic already has the signal it cares about, and VPN use often just degrades gameplay or flags the account. DNS filtering can reduce some analytics noise, but it doesn't change the core surveillance model.

The real exposure isn't a single GPS point. It's correlation. Regular play near home, consistent schedules, repeated routes, and cross-account identifiers are what turn game data into behavioral profiles. That's where most people leak far more than they realize.

And even with perfect device hygiene, if you're coordinating raids or playing with people who know you IRL, friend lists and social gameplay become correlation points. Solo play reduces this; group coordination amplifies it.

If you just miss the AR collection and walking gameplay loop rather than Pokémon specifically, there are alternatives worth considering, though most location-based games have similar issues. Single-player options or geocaching apps can sometimes be locked down more effectively.

Treated as an occasional, deliberately isolated activity with clear boundaries, Pokémon Go can be a conscious tradeoff. Treated as a casual app on a daily-driver phone that also handles sensitive communications or operational security, it's incompatible with any serious privacy or threat-model awareness.