Niantic, the developer of the hit mobile game "Pokemon Go," will be permanently banning players who violate its terms of service. Though the terms of service comprise a lot of things, the upcoming bans to be issued will be toward cheaters who basically do not leave home and give the servers the appearance that they are walking around while hunting for Pokemon. These methods of cheating include GPS spoofing, bots, third party enhancement hacks, and a lot of other techniques that allow the game to be played other than how it has been originally designed.
The Verge posted Niantic's official statement regarding the matter on its website. There, it says that their goal is to "provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for everyone." And that they will work with everyone to improve the quality of gameplay, which includes optimization and fine tuning of their anti-cheat system. Also, if any player had been banned by mistake, they can appeal the same through a form.
Players that have been using different kinds of methods of cheating in "Pokemon Go" have been receiving bans for quite some time already. As of now, it still appears unclear how Niantic is going to detect the use of GPS spoofers, bot users, and other hackers. While they seek to make cheating harder and give everyone a fair environment of playing, Niantic is coming up with an in game solution to make tracking Pokemon easier.
A post by Nintendo News says that select players have been tapped to test out new features for a tracking system that could be added to the next update, which makes use of footprints again. This new tracking system shows nearby Pokemon on the top portion of the user interface in front of their respective Pokestop locations. The map can also be zoomed out for a better view and the footprints form part of a pink tracking marker. There can also be seen on the lower portion of the user interface a new feature called "sightings."
Other than that, a prompt which says "The Pokemon fled" pops up if a Pokemon despawns while it is being tracked down. While it is yet unclear as to how these features will be integrated into the game, it definitely will make the game much easier.