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Pokémon Go developers promise to tweak Google account permissions after security concerns

Pokémon Go developers promise to tweak Google account permissions after security concerns

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Niantic Labs, the developer behind the currently planet-dominating Pokémon Go, has responded to concerns over a potential security flaw in the app. Signing into the iOS version of Pokémon Go with a Google account requests permission for full access to that account, raising fears that critical information like email and location history could be potentially compromised, but Niantic says that's not the intention and that it hasn't received data of that nature beyond "basic Google profile information." A fix is said to be on the way.

Here's the full statement Niantic provided to The Verge:

"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."


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