A Quick update on Pokemon Go

I’ve had a bunch of questions and comments about the Pokemon thing (see here if you’re unfamiliar). I figured I’d address the more common ones in a post.

Couldn’t you just create a new Google account and only use it for the game?

Absolutely, but people need to know to do that.

Niantic are part of Google anyway so it doesn’t matter!

Niantic were part of Google, they were spun off last year and are now a separate company. There’s no reason for them to have access to my data stored at Google anymore.

Doesn’t every app do this kind of thing anyway?

Not really. Many apps have been called out for privacy issues and collecting data without permission from their users. Typically this has been limited to data physically on your phone - such as contacts or location information. For one thing, this is more strictly controlled by Android and IOS these days; and for another, full access to a Google account is a lot more than just getting your contacts.

Also different is that I don’t believe Niantic are actually gathering all this personal data, the issue is that they could - and anyone with access to those keys also could.

How do I properly revoke this access?

First, check you’re affected. Go to this page and look for “Pokemon Go Release”. If you see it and want to block it, just click the name and you’ll see a Remove button. Just uninstalling the game will not have an effect.

Is this related to the unofficial APK that has been circulating?

No. So far this issue seems to only affect users on iOS, and an APK is specifically for Android only. Every case of this that I’ve seen has been using the official app as downloaded directly from the iTunes App Store. My personal device is not jailbroken and the app was not sideloaded.

pokemon pokemon go security