Update – Niantic has issued a statement to Game Informer claiming that full account access was made in error, and that the app only required basic information:
We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. However, Pokémon GO only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. 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 has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon GO or Niantic. 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.
Original story – Pokemon GO is huge and it is still growing, and while it does sound like a fun game, it seems that there have been some concerns brought up about the app. It has been discovered that Pokemon GO on iOS will require full account access to your Google account, an odd thing for a game that is basically just about catching Pokemon.
Now there is a bit of confusion as to what full account access means. On Google’s website it reads, “When you grant full account access, the application can 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).”
However in a statement provided by Google tech support to Cybersecurity expert and CEO of Trail of Bits Dan Guido, who then passed on the information to Gizmodo, it says, “In this case, we checked that the Full account access permission refers to most of the My account settings. Specific actions such as sending emails, modifying folders, etc, require explicit permissions to that service (the permission will say “Has access to Gmail”)”.
So the website says it can modify information, while the statement says that it will require explicit permissions, which is why some users are a bit confused and a little worried. We suppose if you are really worried at the end of the day you can always revoke its access to your information, or at least until the folks at Niantic or Google can offer up a clearer and definitive statement on what this all means.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, Google, Pokémon GO, Privacy and Security.