Those of you who participated in (or know someone who participated in) the “Gotta catch ′em all” craze that started in early July may have given away more cellular data than intended. The popular augmented-reality mobile game Pokemon Go essentially merges Google Maps with the world of the Pokemon video game characters on your smartphone. The data-sharing issue occurred when users signed into the game (on their iPhone) using their Google account, allowing Niantic Inc. (the developing company) full access. According to Google, any application with full account access can “see and modify nearly all information in your Google Account,” which includes viewing the contents of Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive and Google Calendar.

Niantic fixed this issue with an update that was released on July 12; however, this issue shows the potential vulnerability of private data and information. Niantic’s new permission request only asks for “basic Google profile information” such as users’ Google username and email address. Although the original request was for more information, Niantic insists that it never did a dive deep into the Google accounts of iPhone users. This statement was later verified by Ari Rubinstein, a security engineer at Slack Technologies Inc., according to his post at the code-sharing website GitHub.

An article in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explained what users should do to fix the data sharing problem: “If you’ve already used an iPhone and a Google account to log in to ‘Pokémon Go,’ log out of the app and download the update. Then, log back in with your Google account to see the scaled-back permissions.

“Once you do that, check to be sure the app no longer has full access by going to Google’s My Account website, myaccount.google.com. Click ‘Connected apps & sites’ then ‘Manage apps.’ If you see that ‘Pokémon Go’ still has full access, revoke it manually here. When you return to ‘Pokémon Go,’ it’ll only have access to your name and email address.”

Why did so many users OK the full access? Well, they didn’t…technically. Pokemon Go never told iPhone users that it was requesting full account access, which is probably the biggest issue.

Niantic’s privacy policy, like that of many other applications, states that the app tracks a user’s phone location, IP address and the webpage most recently visited before playing the game. The application also needs access to a user’s camera to properly function.

The same WSJ article quotes Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, a privacy group based in Washington, saying that a vast majority of privacy controls for apps and online services aren’t sophisticated enough to let consumers decide what bits of data they’re willing to share, “I think people care about their privacy, but the reality is that there is very little they can do about it and they know that,” he said.

Pokemon aside, the July CI edition contains three new articles.

This month we are lucky to have two new authors: Matt Bajkowski and Andrew Plis. Most of their work has been behind the scenes at AAII as finance interns assisting on the Stock Superstars Report (SSR) and Dividend Investing (DI) committees as well as with AAII stock screens. Now that they’ve developing their skills, they’re ready to make their debut from backstage to frontstage.

Bajkowski’s article “Tapping Into the Dividend Well: Reinvesting With DRIPs ” talks about how to access dividend reinvestment programs (DRIPs) and covers some discount brokers that offer DRIPs. While many investors have heard of dividend reinvestment plans, they may not be aware of all the new ways to utilize their extra cash received from dividends.

Plis’ article “Setting Up a Retirement Account Online” reviews the different types of retirement accounts available, as well as how to set one up online using Vanguard’s platform. While the process may seem easy to some, there are many people out there needing reassurance that setting up a retirement account online isn’t difficult. The key to doing it right is knowing which type of account is right for you and choosing a brokerage that offers the best services for your needs. Of course, another important aspect is choosing the funds once you’ve set up the account, which we intend to cover in a future CI edition.

The last of the three new articles is “Personal Capital for iOS and Android,” a Featured App column that talks about a net worth calculator app put out by the personal finance online service Personal Capital.

Lastly, I wanted to mention a “relaunch” this month of our Simple Stock Valuation Worksheet. As our summary describes, “The Simple Valuation Worksheet uses fundamental historical input figures for a chosen company to generate price estimations using two different models. The first model, called the earnings model, uses the latest fiscal earnings per share figure and five-year growth figure to generate a price estimate for this current fiscal year. The second model, called the dividend model, generates price estimates using the latest fiscal dividends per share value and the five-year dividend growth figure.”

Previously, this worksheet required manual input. Now, you only have to type in a ticker you’re looking to analyze. The template is powered by our fundamental stock screening and research database, Stock Investor Pro. The DuPont Analysis Worksheet is also powered by Stock Investor Pro at this point in time.

To access the CI worksheets from the CI home page, click “CI Analysis Worksheets” along the right-hand side of the page.

If you have any helpful suggestions for worksheets, please feel free to email us at CI@aaii.com.

Have a great weekend!