In the game's first release, iPhone users could register by creating an bank account or through their Yahoo and google accounts. The latter option apparently gave Niantic, Pokemon's developer, full access to players' The search engines accounts, meaning the company may access their Gmail, Google Drive files, photos and videos stashed in Google Photos and other content.

 

"You were giving permission, at least in theory to crawl into all facets of your Google globe, " said Adam Levin, founder and chairman of consulting firm IDT911 and author of "Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Pokemon Go Account Con artists usually, Phishers and Identity Crooks. "

 

If Niantic were to have hacked, all the information the idea collects would be up for grabs, he noted.

 

"We, as consumers, give away far an excessive amount access to our data, " warned Levin. "This is America: Give away whatever you need to give away, but just understand what it is you're giving away plus the ramifications" of your choices.

 

"We are living inside a world where breaches have grown the third certainty throughout life, " he added.

 

Niantic, which was spun outside of Google in 2015, responded on Monday to criticism over privacy issues by releasing a statement who's "recently discovered" the "account generation process on iOS wrongly requests full access permission to the user's Google account. "

 

The company said it has been "working on a client-side deal with to request permission pertaining to only basic Google account information, " specifically user IDs along with email addresses, "in line with the info we actually access. "