A Pokemon GO player’s Reddit post details how playing the game at work leads him to being suspected of breaching company security, putting his career at risk.
Pokemon GO has seen massive popularity since its release, becoming the top downloaded app from the iOS store in just two days. Of course, the game’s massive popularity has not come without some concerns about the augmented reality aspect of the gameplay, as there was the Australian police station who offered safety tips advising players to be mindful of their surroundings while playing.
Well, one Pokemon GO player should have listened to the Darwin police station’s advice. Earlier today a Pokemon GO player put a post on Reddit under the name scarstruck4, detailing how his entire career could be in jeopardy because of playing Pokemon GO at work.
According to his post, scarstruck4 is a “23 year old employee in a Banking/IT company” who” read about the launch of Pokemon GO on iOS,” and immediately downloaded it. Unfortunately, his decisions thereafter have put him in an unfavorable position.
“Playing it just for 5 mins, i left for my office. Now this is where i screwed up. Employees of my company are allowed to use smartphones inside the premises BUT using camera is strictly prohibited as we have access to clients personal data. you can guess what happened next… i encountered a wild ZUBAT! i instantly went into Ash mode and started throwing Pokeballs… then came voice from behind ‘excuse me sir, are you clicking photographs?!’ and next thing i knew was my iPhone getting confiscated. I tried to post this yesterday but it got removed because security dept [had] yet to reply back to me. So today i got a call on my alternate number saying that my phone needs to be sent to abroad… to the headquarters of my parent banking company to check for any possible data regarding clients personal info. If any data is found for e.g photos of monitor or codes, i may loose [sic] my job and also be blacklisted. i actually had some photos of programs that i wrote just for reference and i’m shit scared if they get their hands on it. i just started with my career and dont want to be blacklisted! that is worst thing that can happen to any individual to works in a IT sector.”
The post quickly rose to the front page of Reddit with many commenters trying to offer comfort to the hapless Pokemon Trainer. Nevertheless, scarstruck4 updated the post and revealed the outcome of the situation:
“i had a small meeting with my manager, HR and security head as soon as i reached office. they had my phone with them which was in a transparent ziplock bag… i was literally shaking thinking that they will ask me to unlock the phone as they need to ship it. then they asked me what exactly happened and i explained them each and every thing in detail… i took my phone and actually showed them Pokemon GO, how to play it and what exactly we are supposed to do. fortunately they . . . gave me a nice warning and told [me] that no action is being taken against me.”
The post goes onto say that after all of this he didn’t even capture the Zubat. So much for being a great Pokemon GO trainer.
Everyone playing Pokemon GO is anxious to get to level 5 and start battling for control of a gym. However, like any other hobby, keeping it separate from work is always a good idea, for it will save battery life and careers.
Source: Reddit (via The Daily Dot)