back to article Pokemon Go oh no no no, we're not reading your email, says gamemaker

This was a developing story: read through to the updates for the full scoop. Smash-hit mobile game Pokemon Go's catchphrase is "you gotta catch 'em all" – gotta catch all your Google accounts, it seems. As spotted today by IT architect Adam Reeve, the ultra-popular monster-catching vitamin-D-injecting exercise-encouraging …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Pig in a Pokémon

    I hear that Pokémon appear frequently in the deeper data mines.

    1. TheVogon

      Re: Pig in a Pokémon

      Presumably if you use Google for anything, you have little problem with corporate access to all your personal data and emails anyway?

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Pig in a Pokémon

      Not only.

      In concentration camps too.

      I do not know who designed the game to have a PokeStop in every single Holocaust memorial and museum in Eu and USA as well as Aushwitz and Treblinka. However, if the idea to find that person and introduce him first hand to why these places need to be respected is extremely tempting.

      1. Katie Saucey
        Meh

        @Voland's right hand Re: In concentration camps too

        What's worse? The fact that the developers didn't bother to write in exceptions for every sensitive historical spot on the planet which may or may not have a museum or memorial, or that fact that some dumb-ass feels the need to whip out their Iphone at Auschwitz instead of trying to grasp the sites significance?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Team Instict tho, m i rite?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Children Nowadays Don't Care - Just GIMME! GIMME!

    And old git's like me will laugh as they get pwnd along with an R9 credit score.

    1. Oengus

      Re: Children Nowadays Don't Care - Just GIMME! GIMME!

      Children Most people Nowadays Don't Care - Just GIMME! GIMME!

      FTFY

    2. Doctor_Wibble
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Children Nowadays Don't Care - Just GIMME! GIMME!

      > an R9 credit score.

      My assumption is that's bad? Should I be signing up to those 'hourly updates on what my credit score is doing right now and for the rest of my life because I want to be borrowing until my dying day' so-called services that tell me how to game the system of which they are a subsidiary, or better yet pay for the privilege of them telling me how to get them not to give me a crap score?

      Not that I think the whole credit rating thing is severely dodgy or anything.

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. chivo243 Silver badge
    WTF?

    People are amazing

    Signing over access to their gmail account to get into a game? Has thewholefuckingworldgonemad???

    It's against the rules to give out your password?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Free" with in-app purchases

      Why the surprise? The cost of everything nowadays is ALL your private data. No granularity, just smash and grab everything.

      1. VinceH
        Unhappy

        Re: "Free" with in-app purchases

        And sheep everywhere typical users are gradually being trained that this is how it should be.

  6. J. R. Hartley

    Well fuck that.

    Fuck that very much indeed.

  7. Chewi

    I'm not playing it but my wife is. I was slightly cynical about using her Google account but went with it anyway as she doesn't actually use any of those Google services. It's days like this I'm glad we both use FastMail.

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Windows

    Pokemon and Peekmon!

    Someone downloaded a Pokestuff at work today but it was virus-laden. Cute!

    The Rise of The Machines will not be performed by killbots managed by a Artificial Consciousness.

    They will be cuddly pseudo-characters that casually kill you economically while they chatter in high-pitched voices.

    A mixture between Agent Smith and Tribbles, maybe?

    1. AceRimmer1980
      Childcatcher

      Re: Pokemon and Peekmon!

      The Primary Main Objective is to become Royal Crown Chinpokomaster.

  9. Midnight

    Users who report improper touching from Pokemon have also installed Ingress, so it looks like the app is reusing permissions already granted to Niantic's other big game.

    It's still a mess, but that almost explains how Pokemon Go was able to grant itself so much access without user intervention.

  10. VinceH
    Facepalm

    So Pokemon Go "can gain extensive access to your Google account when you sign up" - while the malware version (from one of the linked articles) asks for excessive permissions.

    I think the icon sums up the situation perfectly.

  11. FloopThePig673823

    Are they testing the official apk or the known malware infected apk?

    The official one only has camera/location/storage/contacts for app permissions within android.

    The app is not listed on googles "Apps connected to your account" at all.

    It did provide the usual "do you want to provide these details; email address" to this service" pop up box.

    Am I being dense or is there a distinct lack of clarity with these claims. I have no doubt the malware infected versions do all of the above.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Are they testing the official apk or the known malware infected apk?

      The privacy issue only affects iOS - Android phones running the official app do not grant full access.

      C.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Are they testing the official apk or the known malware infected apk?

        Its on ios issue apparently, due to not very granular permissions. I guess thsts wgat you get when you have an os for idiots.

        1. Mark Simon

          Re: Are they testing the official apk or the known malware infected apk?

          @ac Does literacy come into your definition of “idiot”?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have it loaded on my Android device, it has been granted no access to my Google account, per the Google security website. Going back to the initial post by IT architect Adam Reeve, he has updated his post to say it is only on iOS, and only then only on some random installs. The sky is not necessarily falling.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Yeah, it's just iOS affected. Still, a lot of people and a silly screw-up.

      C.

      1. Steve Evans

        Can iOS users not avoid all the prying just by creating a new gmail account purely to use with the game?

        It's certainly what I do on Android for apps that insist on accessing my google account. A very boring, quiet, and empty google account.

      2. TheVogon

        The IOS issue has now been fixed apparently.

    2. FloopThePig673823

      Ah, the post has been updated, I guess my "issue" is with the lack of detail on claims like these (as they were fairly easily tested). However if it is a repeatable bug, that does seem like a royal cack-up of a bug rather than an intentional ninja-move.

      I've always been fairly confident in the location of the sky :)

    3. deez1122

      Thanks it makes more sense now. I could not see it either.

  13. Ogi
    Black Helicopters

    FBI and NSA, eh?

    " FBI and NSA will be coming up with the next Pokemon title. "

    I thought the current conspiracy is that the Nintendo Pokemon game is based on technology which was in fact made by a CIA sponsored team, for the purposes of mapping and surveying landscapes without having to send agents (and pay them) to do it themselves. Sort of a "gamification" of intelligence scouting/surveying.

    In fact, here you go, tinfoil hat link and all provided: http://www.infowars.com/pokemon-go-linked-to-cia/

    I'll let you all decide the merits of their case yourselves.

    If true however, I would consider it a stroke of genius for whoever thought to turn it into a game, and get yourself an army of people willing to spend their time and money for virtual trinkets to provide you with this intelligence.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: FBI and NSA, eh?

      Using the data to improve, say, G00gle maps would be very economic.

  14. wikkity

    Why I'm not a millionaire

    I just can't understand why people would like this. Or facebook, snapchat, minecraft, etc...

    As a freelance develpoer I've had a lot of people offer shares rather than actual payment, I've always turned that down, mainly as the ideas were stupid. So far none of thiose have proved true, but If anyone had suggested I work on something like this for shares I'd have dismissed it instantly.

    I just don't understand other people, I wish I did.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Meh

      Re: Why I'm not a millionaire

      Your problem's that you are afflicted with sanity. Pretty serious, but there is a solution. Why not just give up? I know, sounds too easy, but millions swear by it. Just "learn to stop worrying and love the bomb," as it were.

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Why I'm not a millionaire / sanity

        There are many people in the world today, who, by no fault of their own, are sane...

        MPFC - Appeal for Sanity

      2. hschulsinger

        Re: Why I'm not a millionaire

        "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

    2. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: Why I'm not a millionaire

      "I just can't understand why people would like this"

      It's a game. People, even sane ones, play games. They are entertained by competing against others or themselves for minor achievements.

      While I don't play Pokémon Go I can understand the attraction of playing a game that includes competing to find things. It seems to be a modern version of an easter egg hunt.

  15. Baldy50

    Couldn't give a flying!!!!!!!!

    póg mo thóin

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Pokemon D'oh!!

    In this game, BigBrothetMon chooses you!

  17. TeacherMARK

    Frankly, if you're dumb enough to be attracted to these silly games, bad things are gonna happen to you in every aspect of your life.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Grumpy git

      If people don't try new things, life would soon become very dull.

    2. David Nash Silver badge

      "bad things are gonna happen to you..."

      Really? Many games are silly. I suppose you play only Chess or Go or something of that ilk?

    3. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
      FAIL

      Your horoscope for today.

      Aries: If you dare enjoying videogames, bad things are gonna happen to you in every aspect of your life. Stay at home, be bitter and yell kids to be off your law. Avoiding fun will make you live longer. Your lucky numbers are...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How long

    How long until some evil bastard 'places' one of these objects out over a deep canyon.

    Would people walk right off a cliff looking at their phone?

    I just think they might.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: How long

      Think of it as evolution in action.

    2. Sherrie Ludwig

      Re: How long

      They already march straight into traffic, kids on bikes wobble down the road staring into their phones, etc. I think someone's come up with the first sally into competitive Darwin Awards for thinning the herd.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How long

      Last night I overheard a hotdog vendor say he was going to "seed" the area around his stand just so that he could capture the business of the "pokemon kids"

      1. Kevin 6

        Re: How long @AC

        last night I was at a gaming shop(they sell board games, and CCG's) that the employees kept throwing lures down to get people to come into the store.

        It actually worked somewhat, and they got quite a few people to come in they sold quite a few packs of pokemon trading cards.

      2. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: How long

        As long as it is just vendors capturing business, we'll probably cope. There are other possibilities, especially as we approach the season when kids are typically let off the leash a little and encouraged to get out and about.

  19. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    The only version of Pokemon I would be interested in

    is Pokemon Go AWAY

    But then I am the kind of old-fashioned person who uses his computer to, well, compute things.

    Weird, I know, but there it is

  20. Unicornpiss
    Meh

    Privacy? Why would I need that?

    People will install anything if it looks like fun, regardless of what it might do to them later. Most don't even understand what they're giving away. I'm sure that in modern life, if there is a devil, he doesn't bother with contracts in blood, but simply has you accept his permissions in the Google Play store. I have a friend pestering me to install a trivia game she likes and wants to play with me. I almost relented until I saw that it wanted to access my call information, user accounts on phone, fine location, camera, and a slew of other permissions that it should never need. I warned her of what it might be doing, but to no avail. It's refreshing when I find a useful app that says: "This app needs no special permissions." It feels like a good Samaritan giving you back your wallet that you dropped with the money intact.

    Of course the proof that people will do anything for fun regardless of the consequences is that you won't find an empty seat at the pub on a Saturday night. (and I seem to never learn the cause and effect of this either)

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Petri.com Brad Sams / Paul Thurrott.

    Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott must be at least two of those names on the petition. Mary Jo Foley won't be, as she hates games.

    Even Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott have stated they won't develop a Microsoft Universal Windows App for Petri.com because they would have to support 2+1 dead platform (my words not theirs, but what was implied) and they all are all but paid by MS, to promote Windows 10 Mobile.

    Dead Parrot sketch, because well, its Dead, dead as the W10 mobile platform can be.

  22. not.known@this.address

    #Poke Mongo?

    Won't Ming the Merciless get a bit peeved then come down here and give us a good seeing-to?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yup - I got it on iPhone - checked my google account and it has Full Account Access. Sucks.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why has no one pointed out Niantic who ran another slightly more grown up but very similar game called the ingress are were officially owned/part of google/alphabet upto last year, so they pwnd all ur data already. Are we really to belive alphabet just decided to let them go on their merry way, or is it more likely its a non-visable puppet master who get to slurp all the ios data they cant get from the droid army... Read the pokemon games terms and conditions, if they are its all above board. Obviously intrest in ingress has dwindled so partnering up with nintendo to have a title that had appeal to a wider age range was required to kick start all the slurpy goodness. Let the good times roll, pinka pinka, bless you.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I always thought that Pokemon sounded like a Jamaican's answer to "what should I do with my new girlfriend after dinner?"

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