The smartphone app ecosystem developed without the regulations or associated guardrails pertaining to institutions that people trust to hold their life savings. For instance, when Pokémon Go was first launched, its creator, Niantic, used an outdated Google API to verify consumer identities. This created confusion about whether millions of consumers had unwittingly granted Niantic full access to their e-mails, contact lists, and calendars.
12 However, it did not stand in the way of Pokémon Go subsequently being downloaded a half billion times. 13 In contrast, these kinds of mistakes in the banking sector could raise grave concerns about consumer data privacy and security and the integrity of consumer transactions data.