I said before that using creature-finding apps like Pokevision could get you banned from Pokemon GO. This week, Niantic took things a bit further. Many of these services, including Pokevision were reportedly down. This isn’t a surprising move. These services not only violated the spirit of the game, but the very plainly written terms of use as well.

-attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any Niantic system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;

-avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble, or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by Niantic or any of Niantic’s providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the Services or Content;

-attempt to access or search the Services or Content, or download Content from the Services through the use of any technology or means other than those provided by Niantic or other generally available third-party web browsers (including, without limitation, automation software, bots, spiders, crawlers, data-mining tools, or hacks, tools, agents, engines, or devices of any kind);

-extract, scrape, index, copy, or mirror the Services or Content or portions thereof (including but not limited to the PokéStop database and other information about users or gameplay);

-forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the Services or Content to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information;

-attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Services or Content;

Niantic Terms of Use

Most likely, other such services will try their hand at cashing in on Pokemon GO. Some will find more success than others. But I’m willing to bet that every one of them will find themselves served a cease-and-desist letter from Niantic.