From the date of it’s launch, Pokemon Go has been downloaded 7.5 million times, according to app analytics firm SensorTower. Gamers all over the world are busy in catching them all in the Pokemon world, but they are not aware that someone also is busy in catching all their personal data through their Google account.
What is the issue and who are being affected?
This issue has been claimed by many users, the developer of the Pokemon Go, Niantic Labs, has full access to your Google account if you used it to log into the game from an iOS device. That means the developer of Pokemon Go, Niantic, may have access to your emails, Google Drive, calendar, contacts, photos, Chrome browsing history, search history, Maps data… and, well, anything else linked to your Google account.
According to Google’s support page, full access lets the application “see and modify nearly all information in your Google Account (but it can’t change your password, delete your account, or pay with Google Wallet on your behalf).”
The issue only seems to be affecting iOS users. Android users who’ve used Google to log in to the app haven’t granted full access, or any access to their Google account.
What the developers said?
Acknowledging the issue Niantic issued a statement,”We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access.”
“Google will soon reduce Pokémon GO’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves,” Niantics added to this.
Pokemon GO is not running on your phone, Here are the reasons, WHY?
How to revoke the access?
If you are an iOS user and logged into the app using your Google account, then you can check whether you’ve granted the complete access or what, you’d have to go into your Google account settings and see which apps have full access. But in the meantime here is one temporary method to revoke the access.
- You’ll need to visit this page.
- Sign in to the same Google account you used for Pokemon Go.
- Click on “Pokemon Go Release” on the list (it should be near the top, where all Full Access apps are listed).
- Click Remove, then OK.
However, the next time the app randomly signs you out you’ll need to log in and revoke access again. You can simply revoke permissions and keep playing. Pokemon Go will try to re-authenticate at some point, and when it fails, you’ll need to log back in and then revoke permissions again. And again.
Playing Pokemon GO! Beware, your smartphone can be hacked
UPDATE: Pokemon GO for iOS has received its first update to resolve Google account privacy concerns and some other bug fixes. Read the full story here and download the updated version 1.0.1 for iOS.
