Pokémon Go To Langley (Premium E269)
Added 2024-12-04 06:16:36 +0000 UTCPokémon 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.”
Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
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)
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
Pando. Oakland emails give another glimpse into 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
Guinness World Records. Pokemon Go Catches Five World Records
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/8/pokemon-go-catches-five-world-records-439327
Jakarta Globe. Authorities Concerned of Security Breach as Pokemon Go Takes Over State Palace
https://jakartaglobe.id/news/authorities-concerned-security-breach-pokemon-go-takes-state-palace
Al Jazeera. Pokemon Go ignites debate in the Middle East.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/7/19/pokemon-go-ignites-debate-in-the-middle-east
RFI. Pokemon Go to jail - Frenchman nabbed hunting Pokemon on 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
Comments
Interesting that everyone just mainlined the "spoopy ai generates invisible side shit" when that is more likely to just be a really good geolocation tool with an integrated streetview database, which while creepy as fuck is only a tool to make operations smoother. Now what is really fucking wild is that what if they drop that rare pokemon not to "gather information" (they already have satalites, planes and network backdoors for that) but to run riot or unrest simulations where they can get movement data from all the participants. I think that one is a much spicier outcome of all this.
Toma
2025-02-01 10:54:54 +0000 UTCGreat episode team...and great work uncovering Mr. Hanky's first name and shady recent activities.
Old Oil
2025-01-31 07:35:47 +0000 UTCsurrreee!
Melazond
2025-01-16 18:46:56 +0000 UTC…. w w wanna be poke friends? Loooooool
Weed
2025-01-04 21:52:13 +0000 UTCI feel bad this made me redownload the game, but it wasn't my old character and i'd have to start all over again. I really had a great time and made friends with that dumb spying game.
Melazond
2025-01-01 16:30:35 +0000 UTCsame
E Lyons
2024-12-19 02:06:24 +0000 UTCYou'd think Miles O'Brien would use a phased tachyon scan to get his topography?
Risc
2024-12-18 07:59:02 +0000 UTCPLEASE make this public, perfect ep to trick normie friends and family into giving QAA a try. The Octopus tentacles are real!
Idiot Breeze
2024-12-18 04:42:49 +0000 UTCIs there any plans to make this public at some point? I want to assign this to my social media students
Jamie Cohen
2024-12-13 20:30:30 +0000 UTCThis, and My Chemical Romance, are two often ignored but true consequences of 9/11
Josep C.
2024-12-12 19:43:29 +0000 UTCChrist this is dismal
jengatoads
2024-12-11 18:24:57 +0000 UTCCommenting out of love
F
2024-12-09 20:14:56 +0000 UTCGreat episode topic. But Julian, ur one of the funniest people on the planet, but you’re also beginning to sound more and more like a violent Antifa extremist in the making. Sending love and moderate vibes. Everything will be ok, no need for immediate Marxist class uprising or to wanna go all Luigi Mangione so often. Any way this is by far my favorite podcast and the only one I subscribe to so don’t ban me please 🙏
F
2024-12-09 20:14:02 +0000 UTC"why doesn't the CIA just build it itself" Jake. That word you keep misusing "neoliberalism" that's why buddy. That's why.
Laura Jacqueline
2024-12-09 13:31:08 +0000 UTCI've known about this for awhile but the way you put this together is top tier as usual. You also brought up some things that I didn't know.
Chris
2024-12-08 20:42:41 +0000 UTCHello Julian! Love your work!
Siân
2024-12-07 14:45:32 +0000 UTCI’d take a Jake vaccine
MifsudZ
2024-12-07 01:35:55 +0000 UTCProbably the best tech episode you have made. For it not being a field any of you are particularly familiar with your guesses and assumptions have been getting a lot better and obviously more informed as you've done more of these types of episodes.
Tad Dolphay
2024-12-07 01:25:35 +0000 UTCSo in some ways you can say not only did ash Ketchum catch them all, but he also melted steel beams
Rad Teacher
2024-12-07 00:14:36 +0000 UTCGah. Haven't even pressed play yet, but I was an avid and early player of Ingress who got tf out when Pokemon launched. I successfully submitted a crapton of locations (and their correesponding data, obviously) that would ultimately become points in the system. So, with fear of a "what have I done?" moment, I dive in. >.<
Justine Riekena
2024-12-06 20:26:25 +0000 UTCTreatlerian Jihad
ploob
2024-12-06 20:22:57 +0000 UTCChinpokomon Go! Destroy the Evil Power!!
Eoin McGuirk
2024-12-06 19:34:43 +0000 UTCHumans yearn for collaboration- not a gamer but this makes sense to me that this would be fun as hell
Shivvy
2024-12-06 10:46:00 +0000 UTCI remember this whole damn thing! What I remember being reported on were people falling off cliffs… not Google as evil empire 🤣 excellent report Travis-truly eye opening. This is why I listen to this. Podcast and even talked about QAA at Thanksgiving lol
C’mon
2024-12-06 03:26:18 +0000 UTCI used to work in a start up in spain funded by an university and a really big tech company developing an open source training enviroment for self driving car's AIs. A year after I left, DARPA bought the company and started outsourcing most of the work to India. In fact, I think not even one of my corworkers at the time remains there. Sooo yep, it's pretty common for DARPA to buy any kind of tech company that they find interesting for their means
Ender
2024-12-06 02:05:57 +0000 UTCDo we need to have a conversation about those AI glasses? Surely those are huge privacy concerns?
Cormac
2024-12-05 22:43:41 +0000 UTCNot for bartenders like me, who had people camping out to try to get uncommon pokemon
ROU Sentient Lichen
2024-12-05 15:21:31 +0000 UTCLet’s be clear, Pokémon go was awesome and fun. Summer 2016 was so sick.
Jacob Teasdale
2024-12-05 13:05:16 +0000 UTCi can't believe they are training AI geoguessr guy... geoguessr guy i will always respect your craft more than the work of any machine 🫡
zane
2024-12-05 12:51:07 +0000 UTCWell when you put it like that, 9/11 lead to gamifying mass surveillance, it's sounds very reasonable, doesn't it?
Mantis Man
2024-12-05 10:44:57 +0000 UTCAll the sources are in the show notes. As ever.
Interested Third Party
2024-12-05 10:01:29 +0000 UTCFeeling so Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace rn 🥰
tapwaterskeptic
2024-12-05 05:58:53 +0000 UTCOkay and now I have the info that they’re making the model. What am I supposed to do about it? Stop playing a game I’ve enjoyed for years? It’s probably too late
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-05 05:05:07 +0000 UTCDerick the part that really got me was when they were reading the Niantic statement on the AI training being through the augmented reality setting and before it’s even over Julian is basically screaming “they’re lying again don’t believe them” Like for an anti-conspiracy theory podcast there was a lot of conspiratorial thinking happening
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-05 05:02:43 +0000 UTCJulian: "They will do their own surveillance!!" Me: *Nods in agreement, listening intently on my Meta glasses*
Carrie Leigh
2024-12-05 04:10:24 +0000 UTCSigh. I can't tell if any sentence is even real anymore. 🤣
Carrie Leigh
2024-12-05 04:08:45 +0000 UTCthis pod is by far my fav parasocial relationship lol
obvious midnight
2024-12-05 04:05:20 +0000 UTCits a yearly tradition for us, so many christmas memories
nerdtaxi
2024-12-05 03:27:23 +0000 UTC'Santa with Muscles' is a great film 👌
Ryan Post
2024-12-05 03:00:09 +0000 UTCWait, no-ones saying you have to do anything at all, wtf lol? Did you not check the sources? Not see the last link from from the official Niantic website where they admit to using that data to build their geospatial AI model? Did you not even listen to the whole episode? It's fine, If you having trouble, here it is: ------ Niantic Labs. Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence https://nianticlabs.com/news/largegeospatialmodel
Overzealous Euthanasiast
2024-12-05 02:43:56 +0000 UTCI didn't understand it at all, the guy who founded Niantec worked for a company that contracted with the CIA in 2003, joined Google which had a data harvesting controversy, thus proving that Niantec = CIA? It's plausible, but the way the podcast uses insinuation as proof and then gloats over it is anti-intellectual, especially as they read out memos of concern from the CIA and co about pokemon go as if those are proof. I may need to unsub again if this is the direction this podcast is heading in.
Derick Gadd
2024-12-05 02:30:17 +0000 UTCSomeone should do a wellness check on Julian after this ep
Erika L
2024-12-05 02:15:11 +0000 UTCTravis is Dad
Shivvy
2024-12-05 02:01:56 +0000 UTC23:23 (lucky!) Julian asks Xi to carpet bomb us
Shivvy
2024-12-05 02:01:42 +0000 UTCOkay and what am I supposed to do about that? Stay in my basement all the time?
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-05 01:20:21 +0000 UTCI used to play so much Ingress. Traveled up and down the west coast for events, even. I made a lot of friends I still keep to this day. When PoGo came out, it split our player numbers and a lot of people were never seen again. When PoGo took our most visited portals, one of them ended up being Club Z, with its great description, "Seattle's only 24/7 mirrored glory hole maze!"
Kevin
2024-12-05 01:19:11 +0000 UTCThoughts and prayers for Julian's brain during Santa With Muscles
Grease Witherspoon
2024-12-05 00:36:50 +0000 UTCThe way the scanning feature works does make sense that it would be the bread and butter of how they train the AI. What it has you do is go to a very specific spot and stand with your camera open slowly panning across an area like you’re making a panoramic photo. The nice thing is pretty much everyone I’ve met who plays the game does not use the feature because it’s annoying, an obvious creepy spy activity, and makes it harder to sync up the quests you get with your friends. They are lying about the scanning quests being the only thing they are using though because the AR mechanic for taking photos of buddy Pokemon or wild Pokemon would collect the same data just not targeted at a specific location. It’s another feature that no one uses because it’s disruptive to gameplay. Probably the reason they added the scanning quests that force you to use AR.
Eddy
2024-12-05 00:36:49 +0000 UTCIt doesn't change anywhere near as much as you seem to believe it does though. There's a lot of valuable data for grabs outside of the one line you've tunnel-visioned onto.
Overzealous Euthanasiast
2024-12-05 00:04:37 +0000 UTCSomeone needs to put a PoGo gym at Julian’s house lol.
Gallo Altanero
2024-12-04 23:56:55 +0000 UTCLet's be friends in Pokémon GO! My Trainer Code is 752409995376 Lol
Gallo Altanero
2024-12-04 23:51:56 +0000 UTCword ty!
callie
2024-12-04 23:44:48 +0000 UTCI thank you so much for telling me like it is.
Valonsäde Vesalainen
2024-12-04 23:44:19 +0000 UTCThis game did fix my blood pressure and playing as I am listening. And yeah I mean no one uses the AR function to catch anymore, but kinda to make new stops and trails. And such. And I have trespassed to get a rare Pokémon back in the day. But generally it is like elderly retired people who only play now or parents to distract their kids.
Gallo Altanero
2024-12-04 23:38:36 +0000 UTCTravis has a daughter??
Ashley Botkin
2024-12-04 23:37:59 +0000 UTCToo early to say fuck UHC CEO?
Evan Nelson
2024-12-04 23:17:22 +0000 UTCPOKEMON GO to the black site in a trunk
SM21
2024-12-04 22:34:57 +0000 UTCJulian’s imagination
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 22:23:30 +0000 UTCAlso Travis the reason it wouldn’t be able to collect AI data if you don’t do the AR scanning thing is because you don’t need AR to play the game. I haven’t used it once. Maybe try talking to someone who’s played the game recently next time?
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 22:23:22 +0000 UTCYeah I just finished this episode and this was a frustrating one for me. Niantic has been an independent company since before Pokémon Go came out so I’m not sure why half the episode was devoted to Google’s bad shit Also why is Julian convinced that they’re intentionally spawning rare pokemon on military bases? For an anti QAnon podcast there wasn’t a lot of critical thinking done here
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 22:16:58 +0000 UTCchapelle roan made a documentary about it it's on HBO
SM21
2024-12-04 22:16:56 +0000 UTCi can’t find anything at all about this online… does anyone know of any sources or articles or anything?
callie
2024-12-04 21:47:27 +0000 UTCMan who cares - if you enjoy the game keep playing it. Just don’t use the AR feature
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 21:29:01 +0000 UTCOh okay none of them have played the game since the year it launched. Makes sense
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 20:54:35 +0000 UTCLiv-agar-mon Go
ROU Sentient Lichen
2024-12-04 20:51:36 +0000 UTCI’m sorry I’m less than 2 minutes in and this episode is already inaccurate and it’s pissing me off. I’ve played the game for 5+ years and I’ve never once “pointed the camera in the physical world to capture a digital pokemon”. You click on the pokemon on your phone and it appears on your phone. The only real world aspect is the GPS function
Andrew Lenahan
2024-12-04 20:51:12 +0000 UTCBruh
Sebastian Pickett
2024-12-04 20:12:48 +0000 UTCThis now makes me wonder about all of the other GPS-based games and Apps that I've used like Geocaching/Adventure Labs etc.
Kimberley Gibson
2024-12-04 20:11:49 +0000 UTCI've never played CoD, but the GhostSoap shipping is legitimately hilarious
Kimberley Gibson
2024-12-04 20:10:24 +0000 UTCSo that’s why they are always hosting big events in Taiwan 👀
Eddy
2024-12-04 20:06:02 +0000 UTCJulian really is the Nostalgia Critic of the podcast by how he screeches. Credit: Oscar Lama for that comparison I saw on Twitter
Andrew Yeager
2024-12-04 19:37:29 +0000 UTCthe true prophet
Robert Williams
2024-12-04 19:19:11 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure I've mapped most of North Texas for them
Kingfisher
2024-12-04 19:11:24 +0000 UTCI'm POKEMON GOing to kill myself.
TheDeadman
2024-12-04 19:05:13 +0000 UTCAgreed. Been playing ingress since launch. I got freaked out by the masses of people playing Pokemon go.
Jason Entine
2024-12-04 18:50:26 +0000 UTCOh yeah. One of the "links" that was made to form one of the "fields" was in Guantanamo Bay. I'm seriously not joking.
Saoirse Murray
2024-12-04 18:45:13 +0000 UTCI know Ingress was only a blurb in the episode, but it's legitimately my favorite game of all time. I don't recommend getting into it because if it hooks you you'll get sucked in and waste so much time and money on it, but working with your local teammates to create large-scale "fields" is such a joy. I once was part of a highly coordinated "operation" in the game that involved over 400 people working together performing certain assigned actions within a half hour all across the United States and Canada. It was insanely fun.
Saoirse Murray
2024-12-04 18:18:55 +0000 UTCGimme a supercut of Travis saying “Pokeemon”
Dan MacKinnon
2024-12-04 18:06:03 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to the stuff we don't yet know about, can I suggest the likelihood of the Call of Duty videogame franchise? They've already been clocked doing pretty much everything else to fluff USA foreign policy PR, and their publisher corporation Activision is legitimately one of the worst examples of hyper-capitalist rot within the industry too. Just try looking up Bobby Kotick pics without finding devil horns edited onto him lol! ------- We do have weaknesses as a species, for as long as humans have desires and needs, those DnNs will be exploited against them (uhh, us...i meant us!) by those who've hoarded - or imply/claim access to - the resources generally believed necessary to meet or fulfill them.
Overzealous Euthanasiast
2024-12-04 17:26:44 +0000 UTCThis is reminding me of the articles a few years ago about how a jogging app was revealing locations of secret military and spying installations
Laura
2024-12-04 17:16:28 +0000 UTCVil Gara
Flem Candango
2024-12-04 16:50:35 +0000 UTCJulian picking on Jake less has lead to me picking out the moments where, he used to jump on some minor flub and eviscerate him brutally. I’m half way through the episode and so far I count two: • google earth cars weren’t self driving • the saying is “drop in the bucket” not hat. Anyone else find themselves waiting for Julian to swoop in with a cackle and feel a weird combo of relieved and disappointed when it doesn’t come?
Flem Candango
2024-12-04 16:49:47 +0000 UTCReally feelings Travis' feelings on this at the end. It's heavy!
hhhhhm
2024-12-04 16:35:55 +0000 UTCGreat episode! Neolibberal governments are outwardly critical of Chinese government mass surveillance while quietly taking notes and implementing similar infrastructure but piecemeal and via private companies, Google, meta etc. and presented as voluntary
hhhhhm
2024-12-04 16:33:30 +0000 UTCThere is/was an actual Ghostbusters augmented reality game, so…
Brent
2024-12-04 16:26:40 +0000 UTCliv agar
ev
2024-12-04 15:40:39 +0000 UTCMan, I never thought Miles O'Brien would side with the Cardassians like this.
Hilary Wilson
2024-12-04 14:37:29 +0000 UTCOK, I'm convinced Jake is a result of a DARPA project code named Deep War. Liv is his handler. Your secret is out, but you're among friends you two. I bow to your zirconium magnificence. Cool episode.
bigphoton
2024-12-04 14:16:45 +0000 UTCGiv Alar
Mehdi Akbar
2024-12-04 14:03:53 +0000 UTCYou fuckers are trying to depress me personally, aren't you? I'm a 54-year-old man who got addicted to Pokémon Go in 2022, so this is just what the most self-loathing parts of my mind wanted to hear.
Ol' Firebones
2024-12-04 13:45:28 +0000 UTCLiv agar
Noah
2024-12-04 12:56:27 +0000 UTCReally loved this. I have been telling friends and colleagues not to “play” this game for what feels like ages. “Augmented reality” is a very basic scam, but an especially nasty one. It’s not fundamentally different than most media, but is part of an effort to link mass media to military weapons systems and policing systems, which makes it particularly distasteful.
John Harwood
2024-12-04 12:39:11 +0000 UTCAgree with sentiment of allowing the episode to be public, there's a lot of people no doubt still in need of informing
Overzealous Euthanasiast
2024-12-04 11:42:14 +0000 UTCThis was a great episode. Really cooked my brain. This one should be made public, in my opinion.
Molecule Man
2024-12-04 08:58:18 +0000 UTCOMG, this episode cooked me more than any in quite a while. I have a 14-year-old who's obsessed with that game. I've been raising a spy!
Brad Plumb
2024-12-04 08:58:09 +0000 UTCMore like 'Peek at you' ... Amirite? 👀
Schwartz666
2024-12-04 07:37:11 +0000 UTCI remember doing this in San Francisco and it was really fun
Claire Hofbauer
2024-12-04 07:04:44 +0000 UTCAdd me
Rake Jockatansky
2024-12-04 06:38:51 +0000 UTC787870069195
Rake Jockatansky
2024-12-04 06:38:41 +0000 UTC787870069195
Rake Jockatansky
2024-12-04 06:38:32 +0000 UTCWhat, livs back on pogo?
Rake Jockatansky
2024-12-04 06:37:41 +0000 UTCPraise be
Grease Witherspoon
2024-12-04 06:19:59 +0000 UTCGotta catch em all?
'Mech Bae
2024-12-04 06:19:58 +0000 UTC
