Signed into Pokémon Go via Google? Why you may want to stop playing immediately

[tblue37]

http://fox8.com/2016/07/12/signed-into-pokemon-go-via-google-you-may-want-to-stop-playing-immediately/

Pokemon Go Google sign-in gives company 100% access to everything in your Google account!

SNIP

Those who downloaded the game to an iPhone and chose to sign in via Google gave the game’s developer, a company called Niantic Labs, complete access to their Google accounts. Those who chose to sign in with a Pokémon “Trainer Club” account are not affected.

There’s no evidence that Niantic is playing “catch ’em all” with players’ personal info, but full access might make it possible. The setting grants a third party access to one’s search history, email contents, Google Photos, Google drive docs and much more, according to the search engine’s help site. The sign-in issue is mostly affecting iOS users, but a few Android owners have reported similar problems, according to Engadget.

To take permission away from Niantic, players can follow this link and adjust settings:

https://myaccount.google.com/intro/security?target=permissions#connectedapps

SNIP

See the company’s full statement below:

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.

[MFM008]

1. we went by somewhere near my place

2 days ago and a bunch of people all wandering around slowly looking on the ground with their Phones.
I guess that's what they were doing.
Looked like an episode of the Walking Dead.
This cant be a good idea.

[tblue37]

2. I think there will be lawsuits as more people get hurt or killed.

Eventually someone is going to sue the company for creating and promoting a public hazard or maybe an attractive nuisance--something.

[TDale313]

3. An update was already released that fixed the issue.

Several days ago, and within a day or two of the problem being discovered/publicized.

[Kablooie]

4. I have a junk email account for questionable signups.

Pokemon Go is on it. (I wanted to see what it's all about)

If they check out my google account all they'll get is tons of ads from shady sites.