With the launch of Pokemon Go, thousands of people downloaded the application and did their best to catch different creatures, but when the app was launched, it asked for permission to use information some were not comfortable giving.
The application asked users to provide access to their Google accounts. That means Pokemon Go would have access to email, calendars, Google Drive documents, and much more.
"As anything on the internet, you should probably keep some of your privacy settings to yourself and not put all your information out there," Seth Morton, a Pokemon Go player said.
Pokemon Go updated the app to not require the Google information, but it helped raise a question for a lot of people: How much information should you give these applications?
"Usually a company will request for more access than they actually need," Finn Breland of Lipscomb University's College of Computing and Technology, explained, adding that companies asking for permission to use information of users is nothing new, but it is something that people need to be aware of. "You click that button that says 'allow full access to my Facebook account,' that's going through all your posts, all your videos, all your photos, all of your contacts, all of your email addresses."
That information can be abused by a company, or sold to a different company for them to use.
"You know that your data is valuable because people are paying money to get access to you," Breland said.
Breland explained that some information is safe to give out as long as it goes through a reputable application or website, but even some of the most simple apps can bring forward security questions.
To further protect yourself after downloading an app, you can limit access an app has to your phone and information after downloading it.
According to Breland, the bottom line is to be safe and always be aware that when you're using an internet connected device, you're transmitting data across the web.
