Changes for Pokemon Go after concerns about access to Google accounts

Pokemon Go’s creators said they plan to make changes after media reports raised worries about the popular smartphone app having full access to users’ Google accounts.

“We recently discovered that the Pokemon Go account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account,” Niantic Inc. said in a statement, according to tech news site Recode.

“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.” The company said the mobile game “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.”

Niantic’s response comes after multiple media reports on the potential security risk, with a Fortune story saying Pokemon Go “has full access to your emails and documents.” Niantic — a spinout from Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Nintendo Co. worked together to produce the mobile game.

Source: Market Watch