Many fans of the "Pokemon Go" game are not aware that the CEO of Niantic is involved in a privacy scandal and that the game could be used for spying purposes.
According to BGR, it has been questioned the popular mobile app, "Pokemon Go," is respecting user privacy when it comes to the amount of data it collects. The game actually requires users to provide unlimited access to their camera and location data.
For those "Pokemon Go" fans who still think they should not be worried about Niantic sharing their data for spying purposes or for malicious use, they might not know that Niantic's CEO has already been involved in a major privacy scandal while working at Google. Before becoming CEO at Niantic, John Hanke has worked for the Google Maps-related Wi-Fi sniffing "program."
At the time, Hanke was heading the Google division travelling the globe to expand the reach of Street View, one of company's most impressive teams. But what is even more intriguing is the fact that Hanke reached Google after the search giant purchased his Keyhole startup.
According to various reports, Keyhole is a CIA-funded venture. Later on, after the acquisition by Google, Keyhole transformed into Google Earth.
Street View cars gathering data for the Google Earth app were equipped with Wi-Fi technology capable of capturing traffic from unencrypted networks. At the time, the scandal referred to as Wi-Spy affected Google on a worldwide level. The scandal has been investigated in multiple markets around the world, including the UK, U.S., Canada, France, New Zealand, Germany, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Hungary, according to The Intercept.
At the time, Google tried to first blame the privacy issue on a rogue engineer and Hanke denied having any knowledge of the matter. Later on Google had to admit that it made serious mistakes with the Street View cars. However, no employees were fired.
Another issue is the existence of a patent that describes the technology that a game such as "Pokemon Go" could use to trick players to give up their information freely. After Niantic launched, that patent remained with Google.
These are enough reasons for conspiracy theories to suggest that the "Pokemon Go" game has significant privacy flaws and could be used for spying purposes.
