The world has just gone crazy over Pokémon Go. The Nintendo-owned franchise, which was quite popular in the late 1990s, has recently been revived by Niantic, a Google startup that became independent in 2015 and created Pokémon Go with Nintendo.
However, along with popularity, the game has been mired in many controversies including breach of privacy. However, now F-Secure has trashed the security issues that are reported about Pokémon Go.
F-Secure’s Security Advisor Sean Sullivan highlighted that the stories are mostly overblown. “The robbery stuff is hyped nonsense, allegedly happens once, and the press can’t resist telling the story,” said Sean.
He added that there is nothing wrong for the app’s maker asking for email address, IP address, username, and location details as these are “typical of most apps”. Sean instead advised users to check privacy settings.
Regarding the controversy that Nitantic is asking for full access to entire Google account of the user who want to play Pokémon Go, Sean said that the maker was never able to read Gmail and the permissiveness has more to do with Google’s settings than Nitantic’s.
However, to play, you may still want to create a separate Google account that isn’t connected to your Gmail as F-Secure Labs explains below.
However, F-Secure warned that criminals are taking advantage of the app’s popularity and Android’s laxer security standards — at least compared to the iOS App Store — to spread infected fake “backdoored” versions of the app.
As per F-Secure, users thus should stick to only the official app stores and check reviews before downloading.
“Given the success of the app, you’re bound to hear many stories that stoke suspicion both of the app and the players. You’re also likely to see many imitators who will take advantage of how the app has exposed adult’s urges to play games on their phone that actually bring them into public. And, of course, there will be efforts to monetize this sensation,” F Secure further advised.