Pokemon Go is now out for iOS and Android, and was released 7/7/16.
It was created by Niantic, Inc., which was founded by the Keyhole, Inc. founder John Hanke. Keyhole Inc. was funded by Sony & Nvidia, along with a nice chunk of money coming from the CIA's venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, with In-Q-Tel receiving the majority of funding from the National Geospatial Agency.
The NGA was formerly known as NIMA, the National Imaging and Mapping Agency, until 2003. The NGA's primary focus is mapping Geospatial Intelligence, or GEOINT. Geospatial Intelligence is intelligence about human activity on earth derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information that describes, assesses, and visually depicts physical features and geographical referenced activities on the Earth.
I checked out the NGA.mil website, the main page had an ad for what looked to be some type of Holo-Lens over a girl's face, advertising their magazine they publish. I'm sure they publish that for all their employees, not for general public to know (although it's free to read on their site, just not a popular publication since only NGA probably knows about it, and the few people that lurked onto the site accidentally).
So Niantic/Pokemon Go is basically a front for Geospatial Intelligence gathering, just like the former Ingress from the same company (which wasn't as hugely popular as the Pokemon intellectual property, basically every 90's kid with a capable smart phone is out playing this).
If they need pictures for a specific area updated, they don't have to send any agents/employees. They just spawn a rare Pokemon and someone using the app will take some pictures for them...
The Privacy Policy for Pokemon Go is a also bit Orwellian.
What are your guys thoughts on this application? Just a new Augmented Reality (AR) game, or GEOINT Agency wet dream?
A lot of the posts over on reddit regarding this have been heavily downvoted, which has a few users thinking it may be an 'actual conspiracy' since the astroturfers are hitting it so hard with downvotes and comments.
EDIT:
I found these sources (links from Wikipedia I found) and figured others may find this stuff interesting:
Describes John Hanke & Google connections:
http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/inside-the-mind-of-googles-greatest-idea-man.html
On Google's Military-Industrial Complex, describes Google's acquisition of Keyhole Inc. & funding from In-Q-Tel:
https://pando.com/2014/03/07/the-google-military-surveillance-complex/
EDIT 2:
Interesting video of Niantic Labs CEO, giving his "Adventures on Foot" speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lj9vBhfIGM
redrocket ago
well you didn't specify sir. and since you're being a doodie head i'm going to buy a thing that will spy on me, then i'm gonna buy an extra one for you and just throw it away.
are you suggesting i stop using the internet? the entire thing is being spied on.
go back to paper maps?
your ((((((((((((((legitimate solution))))))))))))))))) is to start being encrypted phones. wew.
lad.
redrocket ago
see, now we're entering "i don't care enough" territory.
if i'm rich, i'll buy a yacht and a bunch of 18-year-old whores and sail around the carribean drunk/high... not spend that money paying corrupt politicians to temporarily stop fucking everyone in the face.
senpaithatignoresyou ago
Why would they need the information on US soil?
I can understand if it was an international app, but why collect so much location data on the US?
Unless they want to know where all the dangerous areas are....
goatboy ago
The conspiracy is not that a government agency created a video game. The conspiracy is that the game is to psychologically prepare the public to believe in either a demon or alien invasion- neither of which is true of course. In order to push a one world government, they need an enemy the entire world could unite against- see project Blue Beam.
This game is just preparing people's minds for that future false flag.
redrocket ago
more like "i already have full-blown painful cancer all over my body, why the fuck would i care if i stubbed my toe"
i preluded my comment with "i feel ya" meaning i agree that it sucks. i was just pointing out the fact that sitting around bitching about it isn't going to fix it, and i doubt any faggot-ass voater is going to try to figure out a legitimate solution to it
but thanks for deflecting the blame of this situation to the one practical/sane/honest/logical person on this cancerfaggot circlejerk. it's totally my fault for not grabbing my sling and running down to the frontlines while you HEROES continue to protect privacy here in voat comments. 😂
Drenki ago
In your first sentence, you wrote "John Locke" but I think you meant "John Hanke" (as you write later).
SJWsRuinedIt ago
With how often people play it at workplaces of all types: it could be a great industrial espionage tool which could pick which targets end-users would photograph.
LetsBeNakedOutside ago
I don't doubt it at all.
At the same time, Snowden psi much covered all of this. They could already come out with some shit and say they are doing it and it wouldn't stop anyone.
PS go team Mystic!
Monsantos_Schlong ago
I knew immediately when I first heard of Pokemon go that this was used for spying since google is involved,but I don't really care about that it's the closest I have to my childhood dream of having a pokemon. Plus you can't really blame the phone if the kids are addicted to it.
Al_Rubyx ago
People report locations manually.
Sciency ago
Its a good theory, we should continue to build on this.
As a side note, I think the blowback when mentioning this theory probably comes from the people who like the game, rather than payed astroturf. Which is even more ingenius, as they have intel and PR built into a single crowd-source platform.
Tancred ago
It's a nice theory, but from what I've seen from the game, people take fotos of the ground....
altaccount4 ago
Until the game characters are on the bench, windowsill, roof, car, etc. Now peeps will willingly snap a photo of your car (which may include license plate numbers) for a game.
So basically everyone playing the game is a surveillance tool.
nogods_nokings ago
it's like the google cars can't get into your backyard, so they pop some pokemons around your house and the first thing you do when you open the app is catch them.
VoatBeatsReddit ago
Yep, the whole thing was incredible fucked up. She was abused for years by her parents, and she finally got to go on a vacation. She is a very nice person, but you can tell that all of the things she has gone threw has taken it's toll on her mentally.
dingomeat ago
I figured it was something like this.
Glad I steered clear.
icamefromreddityo ago
To me it's just common to all these sharing based apps/games. Pokémon Go is more icing on the cake.
Interesting though.
smokratez ago
A bunch of niggers, led by a wigger, already used it to rob white people.
Bradmonty ago
At this point they have everything on you. Everything from your sleep habit to how many times you jack off a day.
OneTrueCube ago
See, I browse porn at all times, literally 24/7, so the government THINKS I'm some super-virile Ubermensch that requires literal constant sexual stimulation and doesn't wanna fuck with me.
Bradmonty ago
I mean as long as you caght them all...
Umrtvovacz ago
You will be amongst the first ones sent to "re-educational camps".
luckyguy ago
You could even get multiple pictures in the same location at different times of day without sitting an agent in a van all day. If you are a drug dealer and find a bunch of people snapping pictures on the outside of your house don't be suprised if their's a pokemon on your property.
Of course this isn't really for drug dealers. This is for forign embases. This isn't just in the US. I'm sure they are loving all the pictures they will get out of Europe.
Downside is a counter-intellegence angle. If you're the bad guy and are smart enough to keep up with pokemon-go (what vilian doesn't have at least one employee that plays the game), you can tell that your location is of interest and when it became of interest which has counter-intellegence value because you then get to consider how and when they came to knowing. Having a plain dressed agent go by in running clothes with no pokemon doesn't leak that you have intel on them.
HomerSimpson ago
Your idea falls apart when you know that they use Google to get their data and Google already has that data.
Except these "rare" pokemon would be in areas where tons of people go every day which has tons of pictures.
Apoc ago
On John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic: http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/inside-the-mind-of-googles-greatest-idea-man.html
From 2014: https://pando.com/2014/03/07/the-google-military-surveillance-complex/
And Niantic was formerly known as "Niantic Labs @ Google" or simply "Niantic Labs".
HomerSimpson ago
All you did was reinforce my point.
Apoc ago
Which was what? That Google already has it covered? That they don't need this technology because people are always taking pictures and the random selfies in bathrooms and parks which show 10% background are somehow better than aiming your camera phone at a random landscape wherever they want to spawn these things?
I live in a remote area & got asked around 1AM on a Sunday Night / Monday if I found the nearby Snorlax when I went out for a little late night exercise, normally I don't see anyone out around that time of night besides myself on my street. I'm sure this won't be the last time, just seems dangerous to have people buried in their phones on bikes/longboards/walking etc. down desolate streets and shit.
OneTrueCube ago
Did you play the game at all? Your premise falls apart when you realize that the people don't actually need to be directly next to the rare spawn. And when you are "catching" it, it's usually on the ground and it shows your current camera, if you tap the pokemon with your phone facing down on a flat surface the pokemon will appear in front of a black screen. Any photos harvested from this game would be completely useless for anything besides entertainment
HomerSimpson ago
You do know google has a google maps car that goes around and takes photos right? Not to mention how inaccurate those images would be since it would mostly just be of the ground.
Ok? How is that relevant to your original conspiracy?
Apoc ago
From your OP:
Yeah people walk down random roads in the middle of the night and just take pictures.
Google Maps car drives around from the middle of the street taking pictures, maybe pulling into a couple parking lots here & there. Some areas aren't even mapped in street view. Have you ever pulled up the 3D view? Most of the images are pretty shitty when you zoom all the way in, you can't see much physical terrain features as it's all relatively 2D still. I'm sure that needs a good updating, aiming the phones at the ground would be great for updating the geography.
And if you read the article I linked you'd see that the CEO of Niantic, Inc. (Pokemon Go's developers) has deep relations with Google, and was the product manager for Google Maps.
I'm sure they are using it for far more than just aiming your camera & swiping Pokemon.
Google has had the dominant smart phone out on the market as well, smart phones weren't as accessible and open before the introduction of Android Linux which all use the Google Play Store for applications. iPhones and Blackberrys were considered rich people's toys...
So now they release this SmartPhone app developed by Niantic @ Google.
You do realize they now have thousands of people roaming outside/indoors as we banter, aiming their smart phone cameras wherever these things happen to spawn? They don't need a fleet of Google Street Cars, they just use a fleet of humans playing this free game. Pretty genius honestly...
HomerSimpson ago
I don't remember a snorlax being a rare pokemon.
Weird. My city is very decently detailed but I guess I don't live in a place no one has heard of like yourself.
Ok? Once again that doesn't change my original point...Google has this data already.
Yes. And that thing is called money.
Again. Just further proves my point that they already have this information.
Apoc ago
Whether Snorlax is rare or not isn't relevant to my point (that there are now random people creeping around my house at all hours of the day to catch Pokemon, when it was relatively quiet a week ago).
Talking about 3D View (Ctrl-Drag from maps.google.com), not Street View or satellite imagery which are both fixed point capture vehicles (the camera is stationary on a vehicle moving through neighborhoods perched at different angles whenever they decide to bring the fleet out, or in outerspace with a birds-eye view). Buildings/cars/trees have blobs for shapes but you can tell what they are, they resemble the object but they aren't highly detailed. You'd need many multiple camera angles to produce a true three dimensional view using photography.
HomerSimpson ago
It relates to the point of them placing a "rare" pokemon. If it was a "rare" it would be in an area where pictures are being taken. Now you are just changing your argument.
Weird. I can see shit just fine.
cointelpro_shill ago
I've had 2 random people tell me to get it tonight. Pretty interesting
Apoc ago
Me and my cousin went out a bit after midnight to get a quick skate session in, it was weird seeing someone else on my street at 12:45AM asking if we caught a Snorlax, being the only house on the block (I live in a relatively quiet area, usually you don't see anyone).
I guess the Pokemon spawns are time sensitive, so different types spawn in different times of day, or different weather conditions.
ComedicGoat ago
Well, just following the money-trail alone already raises a few red flags. It's a very clever way of gathering intelligence, right from under people's noses that they willingly give.
dabork ago
Any sources for the company connections at the beginning? I'd like to spread this but I need a bit more dots connected before I feel confident in this one.
If nothing else, it's a data farm for GPS data that they probably sell off to some company, but it's almost certainly more than that. They're also shilling it aggressively as fuck on Reddit, but that could just be to push profits because the game has microtransaction.
Either way, this boring-ass game is cancer and I hope it flops soon so I can stop hearing about the shit and seeing people roam around like retards.
Apoc ago
On Niantic / Keyhole Inc. founder connection: http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/inside-the-mind-of-googles-greatest-idea-man.html
From Keyhole Inc. Wikipedia:
Broken link from 2005 describing In-Q-Tel (maybe had a Keyhole Inc. mention? I don't know but unfortunately that's the link from the In-Q-Tel connection, but we're talking about intelligence agencies; I'm sure they can erase an obscure page from the web), back before Bloomberg bought out Business Week and the site/servers changed? Not sure but the Wayback machine didn't archive it, I tried pulling up on archive.org:
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-05-09/meet-the-cias-venture-capitalist
This is from the [2], previous link was [1]:
https://pando.com/2014/03/07/the-google-military-surveillance-complex/
From previous source:
VoatBeatsReddit ago
If they really did come up with that idea, you gotta hand it to them that is pretty ingenious. Don't get me wrong, I think it is pretty fucked up, but it is also pretty smart...
EndDrugAndOtherWars ago
nobody ever accused the elites of being dumb
ginx2666 ago
The absolute retards often do accuse politicians and "elites" of being dumb. Well guess what - who's being herded by them?
Rooster88 ago
They sure are interested in this bush outside.....
GreyAlien ago
except there is an option to turn augmented reality off and its just a cgi background when pokemon come up
MaunaLoona ago
Playing with AR on drains your battery much faster and it makes the game more difficult. People turn off AR as soon as they figure out they can do it.
redrocket ago
this. the premise behind pokemongo seemed sketchy, but i'm not sure i care if the government collects data anymore.
they have their hand in every aspect of our privacy. why care now?
VoatBeatsReddit ago
I care simply because in America literally everything is a crime. I don't want them to have any more ammo to fuck over the population with.
I knew a girl who posted a beach picture on CIAbook, and she wasn't aware that a nipple was showing, unfortunately for her she was 15 and a relative reported her for kiddie porn. She almost had her life completely ruined by the government.
redrocket ago
i feel ya but:
Krabba ago
She almost had her life ruined by a relative.
VoatBeatsReddit ago
Yep, just another reason to be very skeptical about the government. They aren't there to help you.