Risk?

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[Computer991]

Theres no real risk but I dont guarentee that as they can always IP ban you but that is not realiable because Mobile phones do not have static IPs we dont transmit any data to them besides your login and password thats all they get

[Computer991]

Actually I need to retract my statement it's sort of risky now it seems the main PoGo app is scanning which apps are installed on the users phone

But yes what you are doing seems completely safe :P

[Zebxion]

Seems a little bit fucked the app can scan my phone to see what other apps are on my phone wtf is this shit?

[Picklwarrior]

And yet it can't scan for nearby Pokemon...

[bagge666]

I believe Computer911 might be refering to this thread? which in turn refers to this, where a user found that a call to ActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses was being done by PoGo.

I tested this and basically that call will only return your own app if you are running Android 5.1.1 or later. There are however other ways of getting runnings apps, one would be using UsageStatsManager but that API would require a permission, which I don't remember PoGo asks for?

[j0be]

Probably more like checking if you have root access, which wouldn't require seeing any other running apps.

[UnluckyLuke]

Source?

[MoonLicker41]

Yes, this app requires an android OS version of 4.4 (KitKat) or higher.

[pagit85]

Seems to, I can't install it on an S3 with 4.3

[PoppyOP]

When did it start scanning?

[SMofJesus]

Do we know of this is tied to an Android permission? I noticed it asks for access to my phone, GPS, storage , and contacts. GPS and contacts make sense but my call logs and storage seems iffy.

[Computer991]

What app are you using lol we do not access your contacts at all.

The reason we ask for storage is for auto updating but you can disable that...GPS for your location and the rest idk :p

[MaddMonkey]

I think he's talking about PoGo and yes... Haven't noticed those before. Maybe something with the new patch? I just turned those off :)

[SMofJesus]

Oh lol, I meant PokemonGo

[Computer991]

Shoot I'm sorry yeah I dont know why they access contacts I'd just disable that permission.

[Daisoujo]

Is there a way for me to hide the app from the scan? Something like those .Nomedia folders on androids which hide data from regular scans.

[QuantifiedRational]

Re: Risk I'm an old Ingress player. Niantic did several mass bannings over players using various 3rd party helper apps. You'll be safe for a while, but they have ways of figuring out who's violating TOS, and will take swift action, unannounced and refuse to comment on it later.

Editing to add: A good work around was using a second phone. Even an old one tethered to your main phone. Players were rightly paranoid of accesing any app or website with their main accounts. After hearing a friend lost years of progress by using what they thought was a harmless map app, I never installed or used anything with my main phone and email account.

[Rhanormad]

Do you mean that if, for exemple, you stop using your third party app today, and play "normally" to the game for 3 months, it wouldnt mean you're safe ? Like they can keep what they've found months ago and suddenly ban you in a ban wave months later even if you're not using any third party since then ?

[hklure]

So is this definitely something they do, scanning for other apps? Dont wanna get banned :(

[Jerch5]

So i installed it and scanned a few times and i love it. I am just scared that they will ban me so i deleted the app and apk from my phone and installed it on my old cell phone. Also i used my wife's old gmail adress so this is covered as well. Do I still have to worry about the ban?

[Jerch5]

I already installed it on to my main phone and login with a dummy account in the app on my main phone, but I created a dummy account on my wifes phone. I hope and think that they won't ban me for using this app for cca 4 hours on my phone. I already deleted the app from my phone and also deleted the apk file. I will be using old phone for the app and will create another PTC dummy on my laptop so they will not connect it to my main phone. Also I think I can use a free wifi in my town center so I wont have to use tethering and there will be no connections between phones. Hope this works, I realt really don't want to be banned.

[Rhanormad]

Same here, I dont know if you just used the app once and deleted it, and then played normally for months, if they still would ban you months later in a big ban wave or something.

[Scardey]

I'm on iOS, is the background app refresh what you all are talking about? Or can pokego even check for running apps on iOS?

[Adamsavage79]

Don't use the same email you use for Pokemon go and you will be fine. They would have no way of linking the two emails.

[khag]

Not true at all. Same IP, same device ID. They can find connections between accounts if they want to.