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Concerns Arise Over Pokémon Go Granting Full Access to Players' Google Accounts [Update: Fix Incoming]

Pokemon should not be trapped and forced to fight for our amusement.

This is not only unethical, but many Pokemon species have been over-collected to satisfy demand in Asian markets. With the combined pressures of habitat loss, many are now on the verge of extinction.

Please, if you do see Pokemon in the wild, just leave them be.

- A message from PETA
 
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Schwyz said:
Nintendo gains access to data, probably by mistake, and people panic.

Google blatantly steals data, makes a fortune from it, and nobody cares.

Logic.
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Blatantly steals data? Most users of Facebook, Google, etc... don't see this the same way you do.

Yeah, I know Google is using my personal data to make $. But in return, I get services for this (I am the product). They claim they are anonymously selling my usage habits/data so that my personal information is protected.

Blatantly stealing is putting it a bit too far imo.

Yeah, did I know Google made Ingress to data mine GPS location? Yeah, but it was fun, got me out of my chair, and I walked over 660km last year and this year. There's a cost to everything.

I trust Google more than I trust Nintendo which is why it bothers me that Niantic (no longer a Google company) would have full access to my Google account.

To each his own, another user on these forums whom I respect has a very negative view of Google and I respect that.
 
rGiskard said:
Pokemon. Apple catering to this crowd is why we can't have nice Mac Hardware.
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Spot on. Besides, this concept of geo-gaming is hardly new. Trust Google and Nintendo to make it sinister and creepy. As if Pokemon wasn't weird and creepy enough anyway. You won't find a performance gamer messing about with Pokemon! They're trawling the web desperate for news and leaks on the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

Agree with all the comments that you can get better versions of what Google offers for free and much better versions if you're willing to spend a dollar or two per month, which is totally worth it for privacy, performance and peace of mind. I pay a small amount for an email service that's so good and powerful I couldn't live without it.

When a company like Google or Microsoft and I'm increasingly (but nowhere near as) concerned Apple is rotten to the core, nothing they produce or buy is worth it. Google has a couple of decent things. I watch and like YouTube with plenty of script, canvas, cookie and ad blocking and that seems to help. Moreover I'm not registered with a single Google or Microsoft product or service, unless Google owns Conde Nast, owners of this site and half the tech sites on the web, then I'm screwed! Lol
 
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"You Americans have such large penis. Our penis is small. But you, so large".

south-park-s03e10c05-japanese-charm-16x9.jpg
 
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MH01 said:
it's like saying , when apple gets hacked.....we are screwed big time. Appleid is as bad as access to the Google ecosystem..... Microsoft is jsut as bad also....all linked now.

And even better , a good chance someone uses the same email/password across all three .... as a whole we have become fools how much info we give to the big companies , cause they say it's safe....
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I have a little more faith that Apple (and Google and MS for that matter) is protecting their systems better than a developer who was too lazy to parse out the permissions needed to make their app work.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
Anyone who's still using Google - stopping isn't hard. There are better maps, better docs, better search, better email, better everything out there. Nothing Google does is particularly exceptional. There's no reason to have a Google account.
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What is the better search? I've found adequate alternatives to most of Google's services, but not search. I've tried to switch to Yahoo, Bing, and Duckduckgo, but I always end up back with Google because they always have the more relevant results.
 
I read an article earlier today that stated that a large number of government employees use their personal email accounts for work purposes. Although this app was invested in by Google, it is a separate company. Granting the game full permission to your Google-related accounts could have some serious repercussions if they are able to extract sensitive or confidential information from these accounts. And by the popularity of it, no doubt people who have access to restricted information have signed up to play and given the game full access to their accounts. What if it turns out the Chinese or Russians are behind Niantic?
 
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ActionableMango said:
What is the better search? I've found adequate alternatives to most of Google's services, but not search. I've tried to switch to Yahoo, Bing, and Duckduckgo, but I always end up back with Google because they always have the more relevant results.
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Duckduckgo is setup as the default search engine in all my browsers. I have google as a toolbar link, and if the search results from Duckduckgo don't look right I just do the search again in Google. I find I only need to use Google about 10% of the time now.

YMMV but this solution works great for me.
 
Jeremy1026 said:
Guess what boys and girls. Google and Niantic don't give a @#$! about you as an individual. Niantic might find out that Home Depot sends you a lot of spam, but thats pretty much it. None of us are big enough fish to matter to Niantic as people.
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And this is how it all began. Sheep like you make it so easy.
 
Great, so one game is getting people robbed virtually and physically... Sounds like a real gem!
 
Lol, ohhh, it was an "error." Yeah, right. The media called them out about it and that's why they are trying to fix it.
 
This is an iOS specific problem, the Android version when signed into a Gmail account does not grant full access.

I checked my account and there was never any full or even basic access granted, yet the application works without issue.
 
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Google and Niantic acknowledged the problem - pretty cool. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/pokemon-go-on-ios-gets-full-access-to-your-google-account/

Taken from above:

""We recently discovered that the Pokémon Goaccount 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 e-mail 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 account information, in line with the data we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed byPokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reducePokémon Go's permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves."
 
the-msa said:
This is a remarkably stupid comment.

They literally don't steal. It's all there in the terms and conditions. Google is very clear about how user data is being used and monetised. Maybe read it?
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Hence my use of the word "blatantly.”

Call me privacy obsessed, but Google in particular has collected far too much information over the years.

Also, please read comments through, you may save yourself from writing something more "remarkably stupid" than that which you had ridiculed. ;)
 
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