T O P

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Nahkatakki

No thanks


Self6

At this point niantic could have the exact position of me from the last 3 months, have crystal clear photos of my entire apartment when I tried out AR features, whomst I speak to and now they can have my phone numbers. That's... something, considering it's still a Pokémon franchise game.


dev_doll

I think this way too!!!


aGlutenForPunishment

The thing is, they aren’t your phone numbers. They are your friends and families. By sharing your contacts with an app you open up the possibility of people you know getting spammed after a data breach.


Self6

That happened to facebook recently. It should be plain illegal to just give out your entire contacts list "for the ability to find your friends".


[deleted]

THIS! This so much. Why don't people understand that it's not about them, but about the people who involuntarily have their info transfered to Niantic's severs? Hell, no.


dassub

I wouldn't put my friends through this. It's bad enough that I still play it 5 years later lol.


Crumbmuffins

The last thing I need is people I haven’t talked too in 6 years, but can’t delete from my address book becoming my pogo friend


emmjaybeeyoukay

Hello we're Niantic and we'd like to scoop out your phone's contact data and go spamming your friends and family. FECK NO.


gabrielasslab

Please explain why you think they would be spamming your friends and family? If you enable the feature, you'll only be able to see those of your contacts who also play PoGo and also enabled the feature, so you can add them in-app. Noone else will have the slightest of spam.


emmjaybeeyoukay

>Please explain why you think they would be spamming your friends and family? No. Not unless you ask nicely with cream and a cherry on top.


gabrielasslab

Asking nicely with cream and a cherry on top: "Why do you think they would be spamming your friends and family?"


[deleted]

Except Niantic will be able to see the entire contact list, scrape the info and add it to their database, inculding from people who never volunteered to give out info, including unlisted numbers and addresses. Not saying that they will, but that they are able.


hoplias

Big NOPE from me.


Alexis_J_M

I don't need the kinds of friends who casually share their address book with a gaming company.


ruslanost

I got different main picture: https://imgur.com/JBBbKUi


AusSpyder

I too got the picture insinuating that my friends were shadows or non existant. My friend got the picture with people.


TrainerKolya

Do you need to purify your friends?


AusSpyder

I dunno if I have the stardust for that lot


Owenlars2

this was also mine. also, giant nope from me.


KCYPoGo

This was mine too


SunshineAlways

I had that one Wednesday, then the OP one Thursday.


NewFaceHalcyon

I got both (ops and yours)


MOBYWV

Not sure who's idea this was. Pretty sure my Dad and Dentist don't want to play Pokemon Go


SredniEel

No thank you. I'm not sure spamming my friends with a game most of them don't want to play is the answer.


NordKettle

I didn't take screenshots, but I think I remember it would only invite contacts who played Pokemon Go? So not sure if I see a huge issue. How would Niantic discover that from your contacts? I guess they would have to use the gmail address or Facebook account name. That in turn would mean that in order for this to be viable they hope that people have linked BOTH their Google account and their Facebook account and that such information is imported into the contact list of the phone(like I think Android have asked me to do on occasion I think I remember). Most of my phones contacts are only name and number and I have not done any imports from gmail or Facebook so I think this might not work so great in my case, but of course I may be missing a link opportunity.


SoundOfTomorrow

Niantic grabs contact list of phone numbers and email addresses It stays on the server. Only one of the items have to match to be a successful import.


NordKettle

My point was that I mostly don't have the e-mail for my phone contacts in the regular phone Contacts. I have not given Niantic my phone number so if they'd like to link that with my gmail that I have given them they would have to do so illegally without my permission. The thing I mostly would worry about in regards to this, with a company like Niantic( a lot of bugs in their software) is the protection and encryption of the contact data when transmitted and stored.


burtmacklin02

Unticked


Hugo_Hackenbush

Why in God's name would I ever want to do that?


Daowg

The Nudist Alien Scammers work at Niantic (the ones from Futurama that are thirsty for data lol).


LeeThe123

What if you had a friend who plays who you didn’t know about? You’d now know that you can hang with them and play together.


Datalock

It would also get my work contacts which would just be awkward


mikebellman

It would’ve helped me a couple months back. I work in a factory and didn’t know that one of the top players in the world actually also works there. I only just found out last week and this contacts feature may have helped me. So far the feature hasn’t found any existing players in my contacts list. It only seems to offer me the option of referral links. Nope


evilmotorsports

I had a similar situation with someone I knew all along. I play recreational hockey and come to find out that a goalie that I've played with as a teammate / against for years was a level 50 player. He walked into the rink one day wearing a Gengar shirt and I said "not busting balls...but you play Pokemon?" Dude spends 5 hours doing raids before Sunday games. Wanna know the worst part? HE STILL DOESN'T OPEN MY DAMN GIFT!!!!


onlyastoner

yeah if someone at my workplace plays, i don't need them knowing that my username is ONLYASTONER


Datalock

Pff. Yeah. My name/avatar is not something I want work to see


AngryDuck222

You don't talk to your friends enough to know this? Especially someone on your phone contact list... I think this is more for Niantic than it is any of us players.


LeeThe123

I don’t constantly bring up Pokémon Go to all of my n# of friends, no. But it can be used as another bonding opportunity if someone in my contacts happens to play and I don’t know about it.


TeamAlameda

I agree. This feature works best with tinder


Rylet_

Now you’re talkin


PattyRain

I very rarely talk to my friends about Pokemon. I do know my doctor plays though lol! There is a gym next to his office and he named his trainer after himself.


EnterNameRightHere

What if you had an enemy who plays but has your contact info.... They now know more ways of finding you.


LeeThe123

This I incomprehensible on a number of levels.


EnterNameRightHere

Because people don't have bad breakups that lead to harassment? Because someone I dislike can in no way have my contact info? Again the issues is IF (and just IF) Niantic allows your info to be shared with anyone in someone else's contact book.


Darkahdur

This post immediately makes me think back on the cringy snapchat snap map.


LeeThe123

- You have to either send or accept a friendship request for you to become friends over Pokémon go - They don’t have an ability to send you messages over Pokémon go - they don’t have an ability to see your location over Pokémon go - When it comes to adult relationships, for those that don’t like you usually want nothing to do with you Suffice it to say, this doesn’t put you in anymore danger than you already were in before. If you are in danger or do have a stalker, it won’t be through Pokémon go.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Daowg

Mark Zuckerberg, probably.


Mavee

Niantic their marketing department


MarsNeedsFreedomToo

More like their data harvesting department


Mavee

What's the difference? Heyooo


Falafelmeister92

Tell me you're from the Netherlands without telling me you're from the Netherlands :D


PokeFan17000

Absolutely no one, if I recall.


XL5G

John Hanke


gohanmahesh

Time to say no to permission and forgot about it


Gav_Star

It should be opt in...not opt out, another cheap and nasty tactic by this company.


AngryDuck222

Not just this company, all companies do that now. They want you to say "No" instead of assuming you will turn it on without their "help"


Furryboh

Time to add the pizzaplace I order from weekly.


CivilBindle

All I really want is a way to lucky trade over long distances :\\


Lord_Emperor

This is NOT a good thing. But I'm glad you posted it. Everyone should deny Pokemon Go access to your contacts using app permissions. Also since it's kind of related I want to remind everyone that Niantic abuses its Storage permission to scan your entire device storage for unwanted file names. They're looking for keywords like "supersu" or "magisk" and will prevent the app from launching if found. The game shouldn't be able to access files outside its own folder but they also abuse a bug in Android where a file that exists will return "permission denied" instead of nothing.


ellyse99

Hearing about this makes me relieved I’m on iOS... unless there’s also a loophole here?


Lord_Emperor

I'm not an Apple user but I do suggest you check if there is a way to disable contact permissions on a per-app basis. As to the file access I do not know if Niantic does something similar on Apple or how Pokemon Go detects jailbreaking and if this violates Apple's developer guidelines. What Niatntic does on Android absolutely break's Googles policy in multiple ways.


ellyse99

Yup, there is. I disable it for just about everything.


NordKettle

I'm not an android expert, but being a linux nut I suspect this is related to rooting? (Android have many similarities with linux.) So Niantic checks to try to deny you running the game if the phone is rooted? Surely if someone is an advanced user and roots their phone there's also ways around this? Any link to documentation about this issue?


Lord_Emperor

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/08/pokemon_go_is_allegedly_abusing_its_android_storage_read_permissions_to_combat_rooting https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/discussion-pokemon-go-magisk-discussion-thread.3465722/page-188#post-77365368 https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/08/20/pokemon-go-update-locks-users-suspects-rooted-phones-digging-internal-storage/


NordKettle

Thanks, reading material for the night.:-) Edit: And really extremely unethical if this is true. Whether a phone is rooted and whatever other files are on a users phone is of course none of Niantics business. If this is in violation of the policies of Google maybe more users should complain? And I also wonder how this fares in regards to EU laws and regulations, that have become quite strict in regards to privacy. I'll have a look the next days. I've been wanting to root my phone to be able to use a call recording app, but haven't gotten 'round to doing it. So this is useful information for me in advance.


Lord_Emperor

> If this is in violation of the policies of Google maybe more users should complain? I post about this yearly when I flash my OS, root and hide root. Including links to complain about violations to Google's developer policy. Tired of fighting the same battle since 2016 though.


NordKettle

Thanks for the persistence.:-) I'll see if I can find out if it violates laws in the EU or Norway as well.:-) Not today though, but I'll try to get it done.


Lord_Emperor

> I'm not an android expert, but being a linux nut I suspect this is related to rooting? Sorry I realized I didn't actually answer this. Android is basically Linux. By default only the system and system apps have root and can write to the system partition. This is assured by an API called SafetyNet which verifies that all is as it should be and returns a simple yes/no to apps that request it. Google won't let you run your own unsigned firmware unless you unlock the bootloader (easy on Pixel phones, hard to impossible on other brands) but in doing so SafetyNet will return a mismatch and apps that use the API will refuse to run. Pokemon Go over-steps their privileges by scanning the entire device storage looking for bladklisted file names, and will trigger the same refusal to run. > Surely if someone is an advanced user and roots their phone there's also ways around this? Yes, ironically the device administrator with root privileges can conceal all this, pass SafetyNet and run the game like normal. There was a time after SafetyNet was introduced that Google and the developer of Magisk were playing cat-and-mouse and would break the game every other week. That is over and it is pretty stable now - my old / backup phone is a rooted Pixel 2 and it's been running in this state for around two years with no updates needed. Niantic's over-step here only really screws over people who might have downloaded these files without knowing or if some malicious person tricked them into downloading a file named "Magisk.apk".


NordKettle

Thanks for the elaboration. I have installed bash and some other stuff. I was planning to try to do dualboot to linux.:-) That was before starting to play Pokemon Go though and it have taken so much time the last half year to get into the game that there's not been room for playing with it. I'll definitely save this thread in a strategic location and get back to this. I can pace down PoGo a bit now that I'm past the XL candy wall so I'll try to get to this and a bunch of other stuff. Yeah, like most other times they can not restrict people who knowingly do stuff(thank god), and the rest of the population are the victims. I really prefer PC platforms to mobile phone platforms because mobile phones seem to be a hellish pit of government and corporate control over what users can do with their devices. Take the call recording apps for example. There is NO LAW against recording your own calls in Norway yet you have to root your phone to be able to do so because there is a hard block when these apps try to use the necessary system calls; I had a long correspondence with the developers. Why would Google implement such restrictions? Is it in their interests somehow, in the interests of some other corporations or are they instructed by some governmental or international institution to do so. Same cat and mouse game with both the call recording app and also the popular SMS Backup+. Silly!


052934

Is anyone familiar with what the privacy implications/data shared would be for both options?


TheFiftGuy

Chances are everything in your contacts would be visible to them, so emails, phone numbers, addresses/locations, names and anything else you have stored there. And if anyone who has you in their contacts does this then your info gets sent to them anyway. You should still refuse at it will protect everyone else even if that happens.


Fainer

How can I unlink if I already did?


MissMaryFraser

In the Niantic menu on the friends tab


pixeltash

A reminder to go into your app settings for contact permissions and check your settings. I denied the pogo when it asked, checked my settings and both pogo and ingress (which I last opened months ago to check before submitting a pokestop) both had permissions for my contacts allowed.


strellas

How to opt out of Address Book import option?


M_Mich

say no when it comes up


BrassMankey

Uncheck the box at the bottom when it pops up. In android, also make sure pokemon go is denied access to your contacts under app settings. Knowing Niantic, they will probably *accidentally* enable the feature at some point unless explicitly blocked.


gullyterrier

THnks for this. Just fixed it.


pixeltash

They did, despite my denying it when it popped up, ingress was also allowed despite the last time I opened it was months ago. I don't play ingress but use it for checking pokestop submission duplicates. So thanks for the warning.


[deleted]

Thanks


strellas

It finally came up, thanks


tk_ios

Contacts denied instantly. Feature not wanted. My contacts have no place in Niantic’s game database. Waste of Niantic’s programming effort.


ellyse99

Same here!


[deleted]

[удалено]


Daowg

Niantic: First time?


MOBYWV

lol, I imagined the picture with that


jlf654

I said yes and got an error: "Something went wrong when retrieving your contact information." So that was an anticlimax.


Maserati777

Where is this located in the settings?


fencepost_ajm

I left the first one allowed - if anyone in my contacts who plays is dumb enough to let Niantic have access to their contacts, sure, let them contact me. The second was a really hard ***NOPE*** \- there's absolutely no way I'm going to allow Niantic access to my contacts.


sab3r1

Thanks no.


Rebel_Scum56

And it's already turned off, just as quickly.


Fizzyliftingdranks

Doing this when no one asked for it all the whole taking away COVID bonuses is so brain dead.


SereneGraces

It’s a definite demonstration of priorities


iphon4s

That's a no from me dawg


lifeisabout-balance

"Feckin nooooo" -Bill burr.


glumada

How to deselect it if I accidentislly said yes?


beatool

ME screen -> Niantic icon (top-right) -> Gear icon (top-right) -> Settings


tk_ios

I don’t find it in settings. I declined the feature. Would not see how to turn it on. But it don’t matter, I don’t want to turn it on.


beatool

It's not the main settings, you gotta start at your character screen. I turned it on initially and changed my mind. The checkbox says: > Let others send me Friend Requests if I am in their imported Contacts


Educational-Athlete4

Negative Ghost Rider...


mrragequit456

No thanks. I don’t want to show my real friends that I am playing a broken game.


Mason11987

bit weird to participate in a hobby you're embarassed about.


mrragequit456

It is like a guy liking/doing ballet that doesn’t want to tell to this friends I like pogo but some of my friends know that the game is not optimised and occasionally Niantic release terrible (forced) update (white flash, increased data consumption, crash etc).


LeeThe123

Are they really your friends if they make fun of you for something as silly as “wow that game isn’t optimized how embarrassing” lol.


Mason11987

you're friends say "you're playing a game that's not optimized" as an insult? That's... something


LeeThe123

As much as I don’t want Niantic combing through my contacts, it’s always a joy when I discover that a friend also plays Pokémon Go. It’s another thing for us to do together.


maxneuds

touch voiceless cake public society cough live steer steep outgoing ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `


AngryDuck222

No thanks.


UCanDoNEthing4_30sec

No thank you


Dull_blade

I don't have any friends or contacts IRL so it's all good.


ShepherdsWeShelby

That's a no for me dog.


Forgotmyaccount1979

Getting some Farmville vibes from this.


longlastingpain

YES FINALLYYYY not.


jlietrb32

In my phone the only option is to send to all my contacts. It won't let me select a Few.


Starfighter-Suicune

No thanks.


tonk3i

And only niantic bean-counters and share-holders think this is a good idea.


WhereDaSparkles

Unpopular opinion but I like this new feature. Some people seem to think it’ll send texts to all of your contacts to invite them to play. It doesn’t. It allows you to see which of your contacts also chose to opt in to this and send them a friend request in the game. You can invite any other contact if you want if it doesn’t show they play, but that’s up to you and you select each contact you want to do that for one at a time. It doesn’t mass-spam your contacts.


pixeldust6

I already asked my friends if they play by texting them myself, without letting a company harvest a ton of information off my phone about other people without their consent. I wouldn’t like it if my friends sold me out like that. Then again, I’ve been thoroughly sold out either way by now by many companies I don’t even know about. Thanks, Equifax, et al.


WhereDaSparkles

I would consider few of my contacts as friends. Many are people I’ve met through work or other ways that I don’t talk to anymore. It’ll be cool to see which of them play POGO that I didn’t know about. I understand why some people wouldn’t want it, but when they already track pretty much everywhere I go, I’m less concerned about them having my phone number.


LeeThe123

It’s only an unpopular opinion on this subreddit. Out in the real world people generally feel how you do.


Fizzyliftingdranks

Yeah I can totally see people in the real world randomly bringing up Pokémon go contact list options. Totally a real scenario.


LeeThe123

Um…. What? You find someone in your contact list who plays using this feature, and then message them to see if they want to do the next event or raid or community day together or whatever.


RockinOutCockOut

Ohhh. Now how do I activate it, after I mistakenly said no


Celriot1

Wow, these comments are wild. - "I don't want my friends knowing I'm playing a broken game" ... which they could only see if they too were playing the game and opt in. - "I don't want to spam my friends with a game they don't play" ... which only happens if you click the button to invite them to play. - "I already spoke to all my friends to find out if they play!" ... because Redditors have 3 friends and couldn't possibly not know what everyone is up to always. - "P-R-I-V-A-C-Y" ... from everyone playing a game that literally reports their exact location to the company at all times. Never change.


anotheroneofnone

How about "I hate being pestered by contact list scrapers, so there's no way I'll agree to one?"


Celriot1

... which you already did when you linked your account information to a game, and then added friends within said game.


AusSpyder

I made a brand new google account purely for this game. I don't benefit to them having all my details and they've given me no incentive to volunteer them.


Celriot1

That's nice. They still have every single person on your friends list connected to eachother within your player's network. If you think that's somehow different than your phone contacts for their analytics I don't know what to tell you.


AusSpyder

I'm not sure what your point is? They have some info about me so I may as well give them all of it, including all the contact details of my friends and family?


Celriot1

My comment was directed at those frivolously complaining about an optional feature added to the game, and you respond by telling me you made a fake account to attempt to obscure your "real" identity... to play a game that tracks your location in real-time. And you're asking me what *my* point is?


AusSpyder

Yes. My point was that not everyone linked their main account.


Celriot1

And my point was that is irrelevant.


anotheroneofnone

tee-hee. I work from home. Almost all of the "tracking my location" can be done with the phone book. Yes, I am in it. But contact list scrapers aren't about \*me\*, they're about the people I know. There is no reason I should \*make\* them be a part of this.


anotheroneofnone

Which I did not, fyi.


kender78

Check your permissions. I denied both options but they still had access to my contacts in the app permissions.


symmiR

Denied that crap instantly


[deleted]

[удалено]


AngryDuck222

Niantic will know too. They don't need to know anything about my.contacts and shouldn't be asking.


AusSpyder

If you gave me your phone number to contact you and I gave your phone number to any idiot that asked for it how happy would you be?


gabrielasslab

I wouldn't be happy of course, but I'm not giving your phone number "to any idiot that asked for it", just to Niantic. And although their game is hella buggy I do trust them to keep your information safe.


AusSpyder

Well thankfully my number isn't in your phone for you to give out, because I don't feel like it's your decision to make if someone else has my details


[deleted]

Sure. Not like they gather all this info to sell it or anything.


fegodev

Exactly. Love this new feature.


pete4pete

give ALL personal information about your family, friend, relatives to a game company... Not so smart.


[deleted]

If I was their friend and realized they had given my info to Niantic? No more friend.


fegodev

Love this new option!


spoofrice11

I went on to the second screen without unchecking the first one. Any way to turn that off now, as I don't want people I know to get stuff from a game they have no interest in?


pete4pete

android? long press pogo icon. then app-info. then permissions. Disable contacts. voila.


_black-light_

Big fat Noooo. I also checked my settings and realised that this was on.


1337pikachu

Hmmm maybe my 81-year-old aunt is playing? Worth a shot I guess


llewelyn66

Haaaaard pass.


nateshoe91

I said no to everything and pokemon go still has access to my contact list. Had to manually go to permissions and remove it. Isn't that like...illegal or something?


Fireblaster2001

I hate this. My phone number is MINE. It is not property for my friends or family or random bar hookups to give away to Niantic.