US Senator Al Franken concerned about Pokemon privacy

[anon50609448]

@nungesser

Those rumors are referred to in his letter, and were proven untrue and retracted by news sources.

You mean this:

@jlw

Media reports have also highlighted that Pokemon GO has full access to some users’ Google accounts, which includes their Gmail services. We recognize and commend Niantic for quickly responding to these specific concerns, and ask for continued assurance that a fix will be implemented swiftly.

and

@jlw

According to reports, signing into Pokemon GO on iOS through a user’s Google account gives Niantic full access to an individual’s Google account without the user’s knowledge. Niantic has since recognized that it erroneously asked for more permissions than it intended. Can you provide an update on any fix Niantic is seeking to correct this mistake? Also, please confirm that Niantic never collected or stored any information it gained access to as a result of this mistake.

From Niantic’s statement:

We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account.
[emphasis mine]

So Niantic made a mistake, it was highlighted in the media, they said they’d fix it. Franken mentions the media reports, thanks Niantic for their rapid response, and asks them for further details. I’m really not seeing how this is an unreasonable response.