Niantic comments on Pokémon GO privacy concerns

Niantic clarified the Google account permissions Pokémon GO needed to Game Informer.

The iOS version of Pokémon GO requested full Google account access when signing up through it and this meant Niantic could access your Google Photos, send emails, and more. This was apparently a mistake and Niantic offered Game Informer a full statement. Read the full statement below:

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.

For more information, please review Niantic’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.nianticlabs.com/privacy/pokemongo/en

Pokémon GO is available on iOS and Android devices in USA, Australia, and New Zealand. The Worldwide release should be any day now.

Thanks, Game Informer.