Pokemon Go ARG by Niantic (a Google company)

Dang it, you people are making me realize how many more bugs there are than I was realizing. Lots of random freezes / unresponsiveness to touch, and the power save mode sometimes gets it's bearing wrong and turns off the screen when I put it upright. Also, I turned of the app and put in my pocket at an amusement park and while mowing the lawn this weekend to incubate an egg. I had to babysit the thing just to get 0.3km while mowing the lawn and ended the weekend with only 1.3km logged.

http://adamreeve.tumblr.com/post/147...

I don't know enough about this stuff to say one way or another but this sounds bad.

JeremyK wrote:

http://adamreeve.tumblr.com/post/147...

I don't know enough about this stuff to say one way or another but this sounds bad.

On Android the device requests Camera, Contacts, Storage, and Your Location. I give it everything but contacts, which is my habit, I figure my contact info it theirs to give, not mine. The weird thing is he says that SOME iOS people have this problem, but not all. Typically I would think that meant that he had gotten an early non-official version of the game, but that's really only an option for Android people, not iOS, right?

JeremyK wrote:

http://adamreeve.tumblr.com/post/147...

I don't know enough about this stuff to say one way or another but this sounds bad.

Sounds like mostly hyperbole to me. Lots of games don't use their own account system, so that's not weird at all like he claims it is. The Pokemon trainer site is obviously being hammered, which is why he likely couldn't create one through there, and the list of things the app wants permission for is done when you install the app from the Play store, not signing in the first time, and IIRC, it was the same sort of stuff Ingress asks for. I checked my own app permissions, and Pokemon Go isn't listed there at all. From the Play store entry it has the following access:

In-app purchases
Identity
find accounts on the device
Contacts
find accounts on the device
Location
precise location (GPS and network-based)
approximate location (network-based)
Photos/Media/Files
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
read the contents of your USB storage
Storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
read the contents of your USB storage
Camera
take pictures and videos
Other
receive data from Internet
control vibration
pair with Bluetooth devices
access Bluetooth settings
full network access
use accounts on the device
view network connections
prevent device from sleeping

Everything on there is pretty much what you'd expect it to need so it can do what it does. The only thing it doesn't really need right now is the contacts information, but they are planning to add trading so they'll probably have some sort of friends list that will make use of that.

I checked mine and it did say they had full access to my account. I am IOS but it's not jailbroken and was downloaded from the app store. The only other program that had full Access was Google Chrome.

Yonder wrote:
JeremyK wrote:

http://adamreeve.tumblr.com/post/147...

I don't know enough about this stuff to say one way or another but this sounds bad.

On Android the device requests Camera, Contacts, Storage, and Your Location. I give it everything but contacts, which is my habit, I figure my contact info it theirs to give, not mine. The weird thing is he says that SOME iOS people have this problem, but not all. Typically I would think that meant that he had gotten an early non-official version of the game, but that's really only an option for Android people, not iOS, right?

Getting it from a non-official app store brings the risk of malware

I'm on iPhone, and just checked.

Per the "Connected apps" page on Google's account security website, Pokemon Go had been granted "full control" permissions -- so they could read my email and do whatever else they liked with my account.

That's absolutely unacceptable from a security perspective. I removed Pokemon Go's permission to access my account, and won't be playing any more until this gets fixed.

Check the permissions on your own Google account at this link: https://security.google.com/settings...

Yeah, I looked. The legit iOS App Store version grants very not obvious at the time "Full Access" to your Google account.

I removed it.

So far I can't tell any difference, but it hasn't asked me to login again yet (something it was doing on every launch until yesterday afternoon). Worst case I start over with the Trainer Club account I had to make so my kids could play.

Also, absolutely love the friendly nature of this (armed robberies aside). Can't go anywhere the last two days without coming across someone playing and there are always smiles to be traded.

LilCodger wrote:

Yeah, I looked. The legit iOS App Store version grants very not obvious at the time "Full Access" to your Google account.

I removed it.

So far I can't tell any difference, but it hasn't asked me to login again yet (something it was doing on every launch until yesterday afternoon). Worst case I start over with the Trainer Club account I had to make so my kids could play.

Also, absolutely love the friendly nature of this (armed robberies aside). Can't go anywhere the last two days without coming across someone playing and there are always smiles to be traded.

People were saying that it will grant them access again the next time you login. I can't confirm because I had already deleted the game a few days ago.

Probably a shortcut Niantic used when making the iOS version, given that the Android version doesn't require full access. Hopefully they can fix that in an update, cause it's definitely not something they should leave like it is.
Edit - Niantic has been asked about it, but has "no comment to share at the moment".

I'm not sure what I love more: Pokemon Go or the memes/fun shiz people are doing with Pokemon Go. Case #1: Someone has taken over the Westboro Baptist Church/Gym and is controlling it with a Clefairy named LOVEISLOVE

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cm7VT5KWIAEt11J.jpg)

WolverineJon wrote:

I'm on iPhone, and just checked.

Per the "Connected apps" page on Google's account security website, Pokemon Go had been granted "full control" permissions -- so they could read my email and do whatever else they liked with my account.

That's absolutely unacceptable from a security perspective. I removed Pokemon Go's permission to access my account, and won't be playing any more until this gets fixed.

Check the permissions on your own Google account at this link: https://security.google.com/settings...

Heh. I used a Google gmail account that I set up for geocaching to sign up for Pokemon GO. I mainly use it for Geocaching, so I'm not worried, but I've got only two things that request permission: Ingress and Pokemon GO. Ingress requests "basic" access, whatever that is. Pokemon GO requests for full control.

I might be tempted to start over if I had used my main Google account. It's got too much personal information in there.

IMAGE(https://i.reddituploads.com/767814cdf6eb4602af92d1b548ad1491?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=fdaa096f6e18da816a6823295c713fe0)

I forgot what it was like to live in an area where homes were priced so nice.

Wow, must be nice to live somewhere with so many pokestops/gyms populated so close together:

(From the article)
IMAGE(https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/pokemongo1.png?w=596&h=1022)

There's six of them in a park just nearby.

That said, after seeing all the permissions it wanted, I deleted it.

There are about 15 pokestops right across the street from my house... in a cemetery.

Cemeteries are very popular for Ingress players, for some reason. Every cemetery has a bunch of Portals.

tanstaafl wrote:

Cemeteries are very popular for Ingress players, for some reason. Every cemetery has a bunch of Portals.

There are monuments all over, so it makes sense. I just feel odd walking around there for Pokemon while other people are visiting their departed loved ones.

Dyni wrote:

I just feel odd walking around there for Pokemon while other people are visiting their departed loved ones also walking around for Pokemon.

Fixed for me. Seriously, I feel weird walking around looking for invisible creatures, even though I saw others doing the exact same thing.

I downloaded and started playing yesterday. There isn't a lot right around my house, but there's a metric crapload of Stops and Gyms near my office in Boston, along the Harbor Walk. I joined up with team Blue, and was pretty pleased to see that the Gyms near me (at work & at home) are currently a bit volatile, which means I should have good opportunities to operate on both offense and defense.

My middle daughter also got into the game -- as soon as I got home from work, she & I drove to our town's downtown area, which I knew was pretty well marked from Ingress, and suspected would be similarly lucrative; it paid off.

The whole Bellingham (Washington) waterfront was infested with trainers this afternoon, despite a spike in server issues. Lots of quick swaps of gym control, and whenever a rare pokemon popped up you could literally hear a wave of exclamations radiating from the spot. I missed nabbing a Gengar due to the server issues, but it was still fascinating to people watch.

You can also make a fake Google account for PokeGo, I suppose. I may very well do that, because 2FA sucks when the second factor is the phone you're trying to use.

Using a junk account for PokeGo has been my go-to. Its the one I use for my YouTube channel, so its not tied to anything super important.

From what I've heard, and noticed, the gym 1 HP glitch is fixed, but it's now moved to catching Pokemon. So we'll see what's going to happen next.

EDIT: Here's a statement from Niantic about the permissions of using a Google account to sign in. Seems to be fixed.

Here's the statement on their own website: https://support.pokemongo.nianticlab...

we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information

Client-side fix, not server-side, so I expect we'll see the fix in an upcoming patch for the iOS app?

Google will soon reduce Pokémon GO’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.

That's interesting. Sounds like someone at Google is going to run an UPDATE UserAppPermissions SET PermissionLevel='Basic' WHERE App='Pokemon Go'? Seems like an unusual step to take, but not really surprising, given Google's investment in Niantic.

Hmm, still seems to be no clear information on the power up THEN evolve OR evolve THEN power up. I've seen articles and posts that conflict on which is optimal. But all in all it seems the higher the level you are when you catch the more potential a Pokemon has AND their abilities are randomised every time you evolve. So im transferring all the low level ones, saving any of reasonable CP level and hoarding all the dust until its confirmed, besides, my highest level CP Pokemon is 250 and the gyms in my immediate area all seem to be 550CP + so I've got a fair bit of leveling to do before I can compete anyway. Not sure if I'll ever get the free time to catch up with a new child imminent.

Things I'd like to have cleared up:

- Order of power up/evolve for best results
- Meanings of the weight and height of Pokemon (higher = higher potential CP?)
- Are the green, yellow, red circles around Pokemon relative to your player level or static
- What exactly is the boost that incense gives you (in terms of % increase of Pokemon showing up)
- Same again with modules
- Are the Pokemon strengths/weaknesses the same as shown on Bulbapedia
- How many are there total? Any new ones specific to PokemonGo

I guess figuring all this stuff out is half the fun and I'm a Pokemon luddite, so some of the above may be obvious to long time Pokemon players.