My kid discovered pokemon go and loves it. I'm excited because he's getting outside and walking around, getting some exercise and not just playing video games in his room all day.
I was thrilled when he asked me to download it so we could be friends. I've downloaded it but was wondering if there was a version (or a similar app) that is more privacy respecting?
Unfortunately there is no way to interact with other players (as far as I know) than getting the official app. The one upside is Nintendo doesn't make money of selling user data so from a privacy standpoint it's better than most mobile games.
If you are looking to get around adds and data collection for other games (https://apkmody.io/#) works fairly well.