It's Pokémon Go madness. From the day of its launch it has been breaking records. It has become the number one application by volume of downloads and already outperforms Instagram or Twitter when it comes to user activity.
But Pokémon Go is also accompanied by controversy, something that always comes in handy for advertising. First came the accidents, and even theft, derived from its use on the streets of the cities. And now the discovery that the game has access to all your Google data.
Hide your data from Google to Pokémon Go
With this success, Pokémon Go has millions and millions of users Well, although it is only officially available in the United States and a couple of other countries, it can be downloaded from anywhere. And with these figures, the data from the Google accounts of so many users is a very appetizing dish.
Pokémon Go is only available in five countries, but there are already many users from other territories who enjoy this long-awaited game. What you may not know is that, unless you are expressly denied access, You can access all the information and data that we have associated with our Google account.
With this complete access, Pokémon Go will not only be able to see, but also modify your Google account details. Luckily, it will be impossible for him to delete your account, change your password or "go shopping" at your expense by paying with Google Wallet.
It is the Google company itself that explains it is a clear warning when, after downloading Pokémon Go, we register from our iPhone devices:
If you allow full access, the application will be able to see and modify almost all the information in your Google account, but it will not be able to change the password, delete the account or make payments on your behalf with Google Wallet.
Fortunately, we can avoid this situation, but how?
How to prevent Pokémon Go from seeing your Google data?
I am sure that you will not be very amused that a "simple" game is snooping into your personal and private information, so I am going to tell you how to put an end to this situation that, perhaps, you had not yet realized bill.
The process for prevent Pokémon Go from having full access to the information associated with your Google account It is very simple. You just have to follow the following steps:
- Enter the section of applications that you have connected to your Google account. You can do directly from here.
- Find the game in question, Pokémon Go, and give it that full access it is enjoying.
It is done. That simple and that fast. Now you can continue playing and enjoying with Pikatchu and company. But you will be sure that your information stored in Google will not be seen by these strange and funny beings.
Why does Pokémon Go have full access to our Google account?
Actually, it seems that this situation would be nothing more than a mistake. As reported by Niantic, the company developed for this game, Pokémon Go requires full access due to a programming error. This was explained in a statement:
We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously asks for 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 visited or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began to work on a customer review to request permission only for basic Google profile information, based on the data that is actually given access. Google has verified that there is no other information that has been received or accessed by Pokémon GO or Niantic. Google will soon reduce the permission of Pokémon GO to only the basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users do not need to take any action themselves.
Despite the fact that the company claims that it only accesses basic data, by granting it full access, having doubts is logical. But with this simple trick you can now be more secure of your data while playing Pokémon Go.
