Pokémon Go is more than a worldwide craze that inspired millions to hunt Zigzagoons through smartphone-enabled alternate reality. According to intelligence officials in several countries, it’s also an information security threat. Since the game’s release by game developer Niantic in 2016, people have pondered the potential uses of the data that’s collected by aspiring PokéMasters as they meander outside and scan virtual PokéStops.

Travis, Jake, Julian, and Liv dive into why a children’s game about collecting fighting pets has inspired such paranoia. Including how Niantic’s startup ancestor Keyhole, Inc. was saved from bankruptcy by the CIA, how Niantic’s former parent company Google committed one of the worst data privacy violations in history through the “Wi-Spy” scandal, and Niantic’s recent announcement that Pokemon Go data is being used to produce an artificial intelligence system they call a Large Geospatial Model (LGM).

Gotta Catch ‘Em All! And by “Em All” we mean “massive amounts of data from everyone’s smartphones for undisclosed purposes.”

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Editing by Julian Feeld. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

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QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

REFERENCES

Consumer Watchdog. Lost In The Cloud: Google And the US Government
https://insidegoogle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/GOOGGovfinal012411.pdf

Gawker. Pokemon Go Is A Government Surveillance Psyop Conspiracy
https://web.archive.org/web/20160712023458/http://blackbag.gawker.com/pokemon-go-is-a-government-surveillance-psyop-conspirac-1783461240

Pando. Oakland emails give another glimpse into the Google-Military-Surveillance Complex
https://web.archive.org/web/20150819032041/https://pando.com/2014/03/07/the-google-military-surveillance-complex/

Financial Times. Lunch with the FT: Pokémon Go creator John Hanke
https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/596ec790-afe8-11e6-9c37-5787335499a0

Dalton, Craig M. "Sovereigns, spooks, and hackers: An early history of Google geo services and map mashups." Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization 48.4 (2013): 261-274.

Kilday, Bill. Never lost again: The Google mapping revolution that sparked new industries and augmented our reality. Harper Business, 2018.

Wes’s Blog. My Personal Journey On Google Earth
https://westhierry.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-personal-journey-on-google-earth.html

Intercept. Privacy Scandal Haunts Pokemon Go CEO
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/09/privacy-scandal-haunts-pokemon-gos-ceo/

CJR. Poor coverage of Google’s Street View scandal settlement
https://www.cjr.org/the_audit/misleading_coverage_of_street.php

RFI. Pokemon Go to jail - Frenchman nabbed hunting Pokemon on Indonesian military base.
https://www.rfi.fr/en/asia-pacific/20160719-pokemon-go-jail-frenchman-nabbed-hunting-pokemon-indonesian-military-base

CIA Office of Security. Are you At An Agency Facility? Pokemon NO!
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/are%20you%20at%20an%20agency%20faci%5B15210727%5D.pdf

Foreign Policy. The Great Pokemon Go Spy Panic.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/29/pokemongo-cia-nsa-intelligence-spying/

Niantic Labs. Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence
https://nianticlabs.com/news/largegeospatialmodel