Notice "Pokeman Go" yet?? Google Earth Intelligence Gathering GEOINT/IMINT

Welcome to Pokemon Go the latest trend to takeover the phone of everyone you know and have them walking around like zombies "catching" virtual Pokeman in augmented reality. A harmless new trend in gaming right? Or was it devised by an intelligence arm of the military industrial complex for a multitude of INT gathering operations(?)

This merely poses the question and lays out some links from previous writings on the subject, and looks at who's involved in the biggest trend currently affecting mindless drones common populace.

As soon as I saw this take off, it reminded me of a game I read up on a few years ago Ingress made by Niantic which was founded by John Hanke incubated in Google's internal startup division.

John Hanke was the CEO of Keyhole Inc, founded in 2001, it specialized in geospatial data visualization applications, it began seeded by the CIA's Venture Capital arm In-Q-Tel. Keyhole is basically Google Earth.

Moving on to augmented reality systems. Keyhole Inc is seeded by the CIA, they work on Google Earth etc. Hanke leaves to head up Niantic which devises 'games' using augmented reality. Their first is Ingress:

Ingress is a game where people hack and destroy "portals" with "dark energy" escaping or breeching into our world at various key locations. Users use their phone to complete operations, attacking or fortifying each target point/zone and build large virtual networks. While recording GEOINT data. More on Ingress at the bottom.

Ingress had an inherent weakness, it was a very clear representation of everything these augmented reality systems could be, what they could do. Not only are they able to track & monitor movement, record & transmit large data blocks (GEOINT & IMINT) it also highlights the capabilities in a near future of 'block computing' or other derivative systems. Consider the "agents" were setting up communication networks, or attacking key target locations, all of it is very reminiscent of an eerie 80s-era "Big brother gone rogue-Wargame-type dystopian story".

Orwell & Huxley could've never predicted this.

Write up on the Ingress experience.

Ingress looks too much like what it is though, consider this (words from a user):

Ingress players look like terrorists

I'm part of an Ingress faction that routinely communicates using text messages, cellphone calls, and other electronic forms of communication. I only meet the other players as part of the game and we have no other connections to each other in our personal and professional lives.

When we decide to attack the other faction, we use violent phrases like "blow them up", "detonate", and "destroy". We're usually talking about and closinfpublic places and significant landmarks.

**

There is so much more than just GEOINT/IMINT they can gleam from these games. Attack/Defence simulations, studying key target strengths/weaknesses, natural movements, civilian pathing, disaster planning, terror training, etc so on and so forth. The data gathered really has endless possibilities.

As mentioned I think Ingress is too obvious. It looks like a war-game from top to bottom. The key aim of these systems is not all that I've mentioned, remember that Hanke was the mind behind Google Earth, his first company name a tribute to the Keyhole spy satellite.

The primary focus, and the history is all documented in various publications. The new 'Pokemon Go' game is much more useful platform than Ingress for imaging data and geospatial intelligence gathering. Ingress is very war-game like, it appeals to smaller amount of people. Pokemon appeals to everyone, and the subversive nature behind it is masked, behind cute, bubbly characters, and kids want to "catch" (them all).


Pokemon Go is the culmination of a need for a socially accepted, even sought after system, disguised as a friendly children's game. Which is so far the best platform devised able to gather the following with maximum efficiency:

GEOINT - Geospatial intelligence

IMINT - Imagery intelligence

Consider a "rare Pokemon" is placed in an area that needs mapping or imagery data, within a few minutes, hours, these targets will be sufficiently mapped and it can then move on to the next location. My guess is these databases will not be used in Google Earth, but likely for intelligence agencies own inter-office systems that mirror what the public uses, only with greater capabilities, higher resolution, real time tasking, etc

Searching keywords related to the game and the type of systems used, I found a book: Priorities for GEOINT Research at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency outlining the formation of the NGA by NSF, which also described long term goals of creating augmented reality systems to basically incorporate regular peoples communication systems into OPINT systems, and a step towards the development of block computing.

This is insight into the development of the intelligence oversight and the operational arm of the MIC that basically spurred the development and function, whether or not it can be directly linked or tied in on paper, it's clear the ideology was derived from the formation of the NGA and out of pressure or action by various intelligence agencies involved.

Awhile ago there was a major organizational shift which allowed all of this to happen. The DMA became NGA and tookoever CIO DDPO NPIC and then took on the best elements of the DARO NRO DIA CIA related to the task.



Consider it the birth of an alphabet soup agency bastard child.

Below are more snippets from the book. The book outlines how the super-agency NGA was created, borrowing talent/key-sections from a multitude of other agencies and swallowing up those without alternative directives besides the GEOINT/IMINT mission. Snippets cite planning for data acquisition and partnering with outside sources.









"Non-agency partners" I would hazard to guess, are CIA seeded companies that once they've completed their task in mapping technologies, (Google Earth) move on to form Augmented Reality gaming systems, offering a variety of GEOINT/IMINT gathering capabilities, masked as loveable virtual games.












Google links with Military Industrial Complex / Leaked Emails & Protest

More on Ingress - To get a full understanding of how "The Enlightened" battle the "Resistance" the following how-to video explains well:

a reply to: boncho

Or it's a clever idea for the Pokemon company to make a crap load of money with very little money put up front...genius!!!

a reply to: boncho

Pawns, just like everyone who uses SnapChat. It may seem fun and harmless, but once you realize they have been storing umteen different versions of your face (and using Facial Recognition Software), you might become a bit alarmed - I was...

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: boncho

Pawns, just like everyone who uses SnapChat. It may seem fun and harmless, but once you realize they have been storing umteen different versions of your face (and using Facial Recognition Software), you might become a bit alarmed - I was...

I was just reading about that while researching this one. People have never asked themselves "How is this profitable?" with a lot of these companies. Im involved VC group and we backed a small online trading system, which initially was earning okay splits between vendor/consumer, but we were advised to essentially lose money, but open up data-gathering channels by restructuring, if we wanted to become really profitable.

I never really understand a lot of those guys, as the online marketplace is not about making money anymore, instead people raise tens of millions of dollars with the sole strategy of being bought out. There's no market factors they are aiming for, they don't care about profit loss, they don't care about being solvent or having a feasible strategy, it's just a bunch of overly educated nerds sitting around scheming for ways to be bought out by larger companies, and the only product, the real product is user data. It's bizarre.

It's an artificial market. And it's being propped up or encouraged by the military industrial complex. Mind you, Im not saying its 'bad' or 'evil' either. Im rather indifferent to it. Im not sure the end purpose so Im lacking information to make that judgement. However, any secretive organization or conglomerate that seeks total control over information without giving people insight to the end game-objectives, or admitting the full scope of the operations, well, I find it disturbing.

At the same time Im involved financially as well so perhaps its hypocritical, (if you aren't be happy going broke-all my other business ventures have tanked or suffered because they focus on real/actual trade, goods or services exchange-dinged by regulation, corporate competitors or just dwindling markets).

This is (in my mind) everything Orwell & Huxley warned us about. I was speaking to my wife about it, and she's like "who are they?"... "never mind hun." Anyone born 90s up, I notice at least (though it could be simply my wife's friends) seem to be lost when it comes to the potentialities and the warnings in literature in film, about military and corporate arms growing out of control, the loss of individuality and the growth of a Matrix environment which drowns people in a ....augmented reality. Not the game version.

a reply to: boncho

poke whata ?

here's one phone that wont know anything about it. Mobile porn only.

I've played the game this past week end with my 6 year old daughter and I got the same feeling you did; that it’s much more than just a dumb game.

But GEOINT and IMINT?

I just don’t see it. It’s not sophisticated enough,

and it certainly doesn’t TELL you where the rare Pokemon are so can’t induced swarms of people to go to a certain location.

The camera use isn’t all that involved either; unless the government needs a lot of pictures of the ground cause that’s where your pointing it in those short times you use the camera future.

Maybe this is just a test platform and subsequent generations of the game will be worth worrying about; but not in its current form.

To me the game dynamics lend themselves to gathering GPS locations of the user and not much more. The end goal, if this is the end, is likely marketing research for targeted advertisements. So that your phone can tell you there is a McDonalds a block over from where you are currently catching Pokemon.

Weird timing for this game to come out, I think. I'm not too sure what it's about, but I don't like the idea of it. Plus I think it's dangerous. JMO of course.......could just be a silly game?? But I think not........

Lets see who is laughing when i got MewTwo!

originally posted by: tikbalang
Lets see who is laughing when i got MewTwo!

Good luck breaking into Area 51.

dear lord, what the hell was pac-man ? teaching us to devour our children ???

a reply to: DanDanDat

But GEOINT and IMINT? I just don’t see it. It’s not sophisticated enough,

Geospatial and imagery intelligence is much simpler than you realize.

and it certainly doesn’t TELL you where the rare Pokemon are so can’t induced swarms of people to go to a certain location.

Do you decide where the Pokemon spawn or does the game? That's your answer.

The camera use isn’t all that involved either; unless the government needs a lot of pictures of the ground cause that’s where your pointing it in those short times you use the camera future.

That's exactly what they need, among other things. I've been watching streams on social media though, there's much more than just simple pictures of the ground. It's a treasure trove of IMINT

Look at the below pictures, remove the digital game data







Images like this, in a compiled database can produce hundreds of millions of various geo-imaging data, cataloging an entire nation one picture and one angle at a time. It could essentially allow someone to load up a Google Earth-type application, and see footpaths-civilian traffic, entry/exit points, exercise tasking options, etc

The real time implications as of now are limited and likely not developed. That will come with time.

The end goal, if this is the end, is likely marketing research for targeted advertisements. So that your phone can tell you there is a McDonalds a block over from where you are currently catching Pokemon.

Since when is that the primary objective of the CIA, NRO and all the other alphabet agencies involved? What you are talking about is the 'official' - 'what ifs' that mainstream outlets are talking about and projecting. Likely already in the pipeline and meant to raise it as "the worst case scenario" while completely skimming over the real objectives behind these systems.

Even if people were slightly outraged and they abandoned these plans, people would then think "we did it" and prevented big brother or some other irrelevant development. Meanwhile their data is being upstreamed to the UTAH data centre through the regular data skimming operations.

You know who loves Pokemon Go? Small businesses. They "drop a lure" to bring Pokeman to their location; which is quickly inundated with tens, if not 100's of people trying to catch them. Instant foot-traffic. Genius.

My worry is that someone is going to be hit by a car, while staring at their screen.

As a previous poster commented, GPS data on player whereabouts seems the most immediate security concern, but I can see where this type of augmented reality immersion would be interesting to the intel agencies.

Interesting topic, boncho.

So if the government wants to see whats going on in a place they just release their pikachus near a facility and let the unaware spies gather data on the place? its a smart theory, also i read in the future you will be able to pay so your place is of interest to the app, so you can potentially increase revenue attracting people to it.

I should had got some nintendo stocks when wii u tanked

a reply to: boncho

Interesting stuff.. your wife's that young? How did you get a wife that young is what I'm wondering.. you're not that young yourself are you?

I don't really play video games but I thought this idea was rather neat. I almost wanted to try it for myself but I stay away from smartphones.. oh well.

This is a threat to National Security. As an English citizen, I expect Parliament to prohibit this product. It need not be elaborated upon, anybody in the Military ought see that this is a spy tool.

a reply to: boncho

Very interesting take, and well put-together, Boncho! I could see it being an "early form" of something which will be MUCH more sinister in time - like a platform for data gathering to work out the problems of a future system. Or, maybe the actual data gathering IS of use.

This morning, I picked up padlocks for both gates, Four "NO TRESSPASSING" signs to go around the yard, and reinforced the pool gate.

If the neighbor kids knock on the door and want to "catch" a Pokemon while we're there, fine, but I don't want the hassle and expense which would come if some kid (or mobile-game obsessed adult) wandered into my yard and drowned in the pool or was destroyed by my dogs.

Stupid 6-foot, non-razor-wire fence zoning ordinance.

a reply to: boncho

I don't think it would be used for that because there are already better systems.

Just look at this one for example:



And where you wanted spatial info you could and would want to just use your own cell towers and the like with a good algorithm.

In my opinion, the only useful data would be the social behavior of people (percentages of those who work together and how they work together, etc.) while performing recreational activities, but even that will be severely limited to their perception of the game and its objectives.

a reply to: boncho

Dude it is Pokemon chill. Make a thread about this Ingress game if that is what your entire OP focuses on. Oh wait its been out and the world has not ended yet.

The game is hardly 'augmented reality.' Give me a break. Play Dues Ex to see what that would really look like. Not even close.

It is literally a way for the developer and parent company to make untold oodles of money from Pokemon fanatacis with a free app put up front loaded with in game purchases.

Uh oh. I guess the government is tracking which attack moves people will use with Bulbosar! Paranoia...

The only thing i will give you is literally everybody and their child is openly walking around and playing the game is populated public areas right now. The dev could probably put the rarest of Pokemon outside the White House and create the biggest march on DC ever seen and then we take over. How about that conspiracy?

a reply to: lightedhype

Make a thread about this Ingress game if that is what your entire OP focuses on.

My OP doesn't focus on Ingress, it focuses on a larger subject. Years ago a book which outlined priorities for GEOINT/IMINT gathering and the structure of the agencies that compile and control the data. The MIC restructure numerous organizations to form the NGA. Their priorities and objectives were to partner with companies (Like Google, like the CIA backed Keyhole Inc, which became Niantic, which made Ingress & then made Pokemon Go.

So you have a voice of the industry laying out the goals which includes all kind of data harvesting for very specific DOD operations and national security detectives, all outlined (and all included in my OP), and the major concern was being able to find willing partners and a format of augmented reality (a game) to launch it on to achieve the directive.

A few years later the CIA funded company that made Google Earth, made Ingress, launches Pokemon Go.

The game is hardly 'augmented reality.' Give me a break. Play Dues Ex to see what that would really look like. Not even close.

You don't know the definition of augmented reality. It's simply a platform. Future plans include incorporating it into Google glass, but essentially it just means an real world-interactive game. Whether or not you personally feel it meets your incorrect definition you made up is irrelevant.

Oh wait its been out and the world has not ended yet.

Quote me where I said this would bring the end of the world.

It is literally a way for the developer and parent company to make untold oodles of money from Pokemon fanatacis with a free app put up front loaded with in game purchases

With CIA involvement in the company and perfectly outlined in an overall GEOINT/IMINT data acquisition plan made years earlier. Coincidence Im sure.

Uh oh. I guess the government is tracking which attack moves people will use with Bulbosar! Paranoia...

I think you are suffering paranoia, or cognitive dissonance. I outlined in the OP I have no personal feelings on the entire issue. I care not in other words. In fact, I even stated Im invested personally in similar operations on start up companies based in data acquisition, though I'm not extremely happy about it, it's where the market is today.

Your paranoia leads you to assume discussing a topic and recognizing a trend in gaming backed by CIA funding is somehow indicative of a greater paranoia. It isn't. It's simply calling a duck a duck. It's worrying only in its scope and its secrecy which is hidden in plain sight.

The cognitive dissonance comes in whereby discussing this very obvious correlation somehow makes people "paranoid", and told to "chill" by people who do not even understand the definition of the technology. Explain that one.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

Interesting stuff.. your wife's that young? How did you get a wife that young is what I'm wondering.. you're not that young yourself are you?

Not that young, but negotiating with the family... It's all about making the in-laws respect you. Though don't get the wrong idea, it's not like creepy old guy/high school student or anything. She's finished school, she's not quite 90s but a lot her friends are. And I look young for my age the age difference is barely noticeable, unless you consider the difference in ideology. But she keeps herself busy with pop-culture and I simply ignore as much as possible.