Pokmon Go does not snoop on your Google account, insists the developer • Eurogamer.net

You might not realize it, but Pokémon Go on iOS grants The Pokémon Company and developer Niantic full access to your Google Account.

This includes, but is not limited to: viewing and sending emails, viewing and deleting Google Drive documents, viewing what you’ve watched on YouTube, and accessing your contacts. .

Log in to the app with your Google account and you give Pokémon Go the keys to a treasure trove of personal data, although Niantic and The Pokémon Company said the level of access granted to the app was wrong. .

“We recently discovered that the process of creating a Pokémon Go account on iOS incorrectly requests full access permission for the user’s Google account,” The Pokémon Company and Niantic said in a joint statement.

However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (in particular, 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 work on a client-side fix to request authorization only for basic Google profile information, in accordance with the data to which we actually have access.

Google has verified that no other information has been received or viewed by Pokémon GO or Niantic. Google will soon reduce the authorization of Pokémon GO to only basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users will not no need to act themselves. “

Despite the promise, there is concern that the developer was only made aware of the issue after users reported it.

Pokémon Go’s decoy feature has also come under fire after armed thieves were arrested using it to determine player locations. Safety concerns have also focused on the number of children playing the game.

There is still no sign of an official Pokémon Go launch in the UK, although Niantic said it should only take a few more days.

Anyone who wants to play Pokémon Go now in the UK on Android can still do so through a simple workaround. And if you’re playing now, you might want to read our full guide to Pokémon Go to get you started.