Pokémon Go popularity peaks, raises fear of privacy invasion

Pokémon Go, the reality smartphone game from Niantic has become immensely popular but has also opened a variety of issues including a caution notice by National Safety Council urging drivers not to play the game while driving. It also asked pedestrians to exercise caution while playing the game.

There is also a question about the privacy of the large data which the game collects from its users. Senator Al Franken, who is a diehard advocate of privacy, has raised this issue and has even shot a letter to the CEO of Niantic, the creators of the game.

The senator expressed concerns about the voluminous data which the game collects from its users. He wanted to know the end party use of this data and if true how much the company is earning by providing this information to the end users.

When the Pokemon Go was released last week, millions of players had given access to the developers of the game a lot of data. However Niantic Inc. fixed the issue on Tuesday with an update and in a statement said that the request for full Google account access was a mistake, and the update has corrected this lacuna.

The game will now access only basic Google profile information. Players who have already used an iPhone and a Google Account to log in must log out of the application and download the update. Users should log in again to see the scaled-back permissions.

The creators of the game, Niantic was originally a Google startup but became independent in 2015 and created Pokemon Go in partnership with Nintendo.

Despite all the controversies the makers are raking in an estimated $1.6 million daily from iPhone users in the US alone.

The effects are there to be seen in the Nintendo shares which have skyrocketed by more than 50%.The game today has more users than Tinder and netizens searching for Pokemon Go far outstripped those for “Porn”.

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