They said in a statement that the game accessed only user IDs and email addresses of players, “and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected”.
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However, Niantic Labs, the Google spinoff company that created the smash-hit game Pokemon Go, said that it never intended for the game to get full access to users’ Google accounts.
A fake “Pokemon GO” installer has already made the rounds on the internet, infecting a number of users who are otherwise restricted from getting the game on the official app stores.
While registering on Pokemon.com has been temporarily suspended due to the massive demand, Pokemon GO players are still able to login through their Google account.
Since the app was launched, Pokemon Go has added $7.5bn to Nintendo’s value. Or is it? Pokemon Go forums are lousy with super secret ways to fake your location in the game so you can more easily get the things you want. More people are using it on Android than Twitter, it’s bigger than Tinder and people – myself included – have been downloading it despite it still not having had a worldwide release out of desperation to be part of the fad. But the latter is no longer signing up new users and so most of the app’s new users will have joined with their Google account.
But as Adam Reeve discovered, it has to be done from a Google account – which immediately allows the app to gain full access to it without notifying you.
While Pokemon GO has slowly begun to take over the world, some players have had a knee-jerk reaction to the Google sign-up process for the game. Superdata suggests Pokemon Go is the “equivalent of a summer hit song rather than a revolution in the mobile game monarchy”.
The permissions, according to endgadget, means Ninantic, which developed the app for Nintendo, has access to your Google drive docs, search history, private Google Photos and any other items tied to your account, including You Tube and Google Maps. I’ve revoked their access to my account, and deleted the app. I really wish I could play, it looks like great fun, but there’s no way it’s worth the risk.
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Still, officially the game is not available for the Indian audience.
