Pokémon Go is an overnight sensation, but there are security and other concerns

Remember Flappy Bird that became an overnight sensation and of course the drama ensued. Well, now we have Pokémon Go that seems to be attracting users by the day and even managed to add $7.5 billion in Nintendo’s staggering kitty in mere two days. It has been Nintendo’s long-awaited shift into mobile smartphone gaming, and if numbers are to be believed then its paying off. Its trading volume is said to be the highest since October 2015. The players will be seen around neighborhoods looking for virtual Pokémon game characters, which has not only received rave reviews but analysts have also claimed that in-app purchases have hit the right chord. But now niggling worries have started surfacing. If you are accessing Pokémon Go on your iPhone, but signed in using a Google account, then you may have given the keys of your account to Niantic. The game is jointly produced by game developer Niantic and Pokémon Company. The Google page reads, “When you grant full account access, the application can see and modify nearly all information in your Google Account (but it can’t change your password, delete your account, or pay with Google Wallet on your behalf).” This means, the application will get access (see and modify) to all the data on your Google account. Niantic serves and people accessing it, can peep into all your data including email, Drive, search history, Photos and other private content. Though the issue is being faced by iOS users, it is also seen in select cases on Android. The problem doesn’t occur for those signed using Pokémon’s Trainer Club account, but the servers are said to be down. Now, both companies have acknowledged the response and issued a response that reads: We recently discovered that the Pokémon Go account 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 email 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 profile information, in line with the data that we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves. Niantic or Nintendo may not necessarily want to access your  data, but the problem occurs when some malicious mind finds a way out to access all information. n fact, some may have already started working on it.  While the game may have worked wonders for both companies, nothing is above a security concern. Then there are battery woes too. Some users have begun complaining about how the game is eating away into their battery. Along with battery drain, bugs reported by users include distorted audio, incorrect location and GPS issues too. Developer Niantic has said a fix is on the way. Some users are facing problems seeing premium items and Pokecoins. The page suggests signing out of the account and re-signing in. If this doesn’t work then try powering off the device. Some Android users may see that they own an item, even though they don’t. Restarting the device has been suggested here too. All the known issues, with their respective solutions have been listed out on the Support Page.