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The CIA, NSA, and Pokémon Go
June 16, 2024
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Back in July of 2016, I wrote a short article for Network World entitled “The CIA, NSA, and Pokémon Go."

While the title was certainly viewed as a bit “over the top” and “conspiracy theorist-y”, it was really just a collection of (in my opinion, rather bizarre) facts that – even without any sinister connection – were worth documenting. I am republishing it here, with some additional (increasingly odd) details added at the end (including radio and TV appearances related to this article).

Some of the details relating to the exact permissions and capabilities of the Pokémon application have changed over the last few years… but everything else remains correct, factual, and up to date.

 


 

The CIA, NSA, and Pokémon Go

With Pokémon Go currently enjoying, what I would call, a wee-bit-o-success, now seems like a good time to talk about a few things people may not know about the world's favorite new smartphone game.

This is not an opinion piece. I am not going to tell you Pokémon Go is bad or that it invades your privacy. I’m merely presenting verifiable facts about the biggest, most talked about game out there.

Let’s start with a little history

Way back in 2001, Keyhole, Inc. was founded by John Hanke (who previously worked in a “foreign affairs” position within the U.S. government). The company was named after the old “eye-in-the-sky” military satellites. One of the key, early backers of Keyhole was a firm called In-Q-Tel.

In-Q-Tel is the venture capital firm of the CIA. Yes, the Central Intelligence Agency. Much of the funding purportedly came from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The NGA handles combat support for the U.S. Department of Defense and provides intelligence to the NSA and CIA, among others.

Keyhole’s noteworthy public product was “Earth.” Renamed to “Google Earth” after Google acquired Keyhole in 2004.

In 2010, Niantic Labs was founded (inside Google) by Keyhole’s founder, John Hanke.

Over the next few years, Niantic created two location-based apps/games. The first was Field Trip, a smartphone application where users walk around and find things. The second was Ingress, a sci-fi-themed game where players walk around and between locations in the real world.

In 2015, Niantic was spun off from Google and became its own company. Then Pokémon Go was developed and launched by Niantic. It’s a game where you walk around in the real world (between locations suggested by the service) while holding your smartphone.

Data the game can access

Let’s move on to what information Pokémon Go has access to, bearing the history of the company in mind as we do.

When you install Pokémon Go on an Android phone, you grant it the following access (not including the ability to make in-app purchases):

Identity

  • Find accounts on the device

Contacts

  • Find accounts on the device

Location

  • Precise location (GPS and network-based)

  • Approximate location (network-based)

Photos/Media/Files

  • Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

  • Read the contents of your USB storage

Storage

  • Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

  • Read the contents of your USB storage

Camera

  • Take pictures and videos

Other

  • Receive data from the internet

  • Control vibration

  • Pair with Bluetooth devices

  • Access Bluetooth settings

  • Full network access

  • Use accounts on the device

  • View network connections

  • Prevent the device from sleeping

Based on the access to your device (and your information), coupled with the design of Pokémon Go, the game should have no problem discerning and storing the following information (just for a start):

  • Where you are

  • Where you were

  • What route you took between those locations

  • When you were at each location

  • How long it took you to get between them

  • What you are looking at right now

  • What you were looking at in the past

  • What you look like

  • What files you have on your device and the entire contents of those files

I’m not going to tell people what they should think of all this.

I’m merely presenting the information. I recommend looking over the list of what data the game has access to, then going back to the beginning of this article and re-reading the history of the company.

Update: April 14th, 2020

In March of 2017, a little less than a year after this article was originally published, WikiLeaks released what they called “Vault 7." A series of documents that was purported to be a large leak of CIA related documents focused heavily on hacking and electronic surveillance.

Among those documents was a list of code names, descriptions, and various details around Android specific exploits.

Of the code names listed… almost a third of them were Pokémon names. Between that and the CIA investment (via In-Q-Tel) in Niantic (the company behind Pokémon Go)… I mean, that's just a heck of a lot more Pokémon than one would expect from the CIA.

One other little tidbit:

The original CEO of In-Q-Tel was a man named Gilman Louie. Louie received multiple awards for his work with In-Q-Tel - including CIA Agency Seal Medallions, Director's Award by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Director of National Intelligence Medallion – which included investing in Keyhole.

Louie now sits on the board of directors of Niantic.

In 2019 alone, Pokémon Go earned $1.4 Billion (USD). As of February 2019, the game had been downloaded over One Billion times.

Update: June 15th, 2024

After this article was originally published, back in 2016, I made a few radio guest appearances to talk about it -- my favorites being for Coast to Coast AM and Fade to Black.  Both of which remain available online.

This was followed by an episode of a TV show, for The History Channel, called "Breaking Mysterious".  That show only received a limited run in the USA, but it remains available via streaming in many other countries in case you want to look it up.

Here's a few snapshots from that episode (Season 1, Episode 1 - "The Watchers") just for good measure.

The show was originally titled "The Unexplained".  But the name was changed to "Breaking Mysterious"... and, later, "The Unexplained" title was used for an entirely different show, hosted by William Shatner.

 

Yup.  The video editors for the History Channel spelled my name wrong.  (It's with a Y!  A Y, I say!)

 

Sitting in a park.  Dropping truth bombs about surveillance on the show host, Jimmy Church.

 

Giving the show's host "The Look".
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From celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk to censoring Conservatives and even equating Free and Open Source Software with White Supremacy. And there’s more.

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Here are the stories of the week, presented in reverse chronological order.

All of these links are to Substack (where you can watch the video or listen to the audio podcast) — but all of these stories are available for free on every platform which The Lunduke Journal publishes to. Use whichever platform works for you.

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This week I am reminded why The Lunduke Journal is important.

Over the last 7 days, we published 13 stories.

Of those 13 stories only 2 were covered by any other Tech News outlet. Two.

And, in both of those 2 stories, The Lunduke Journal is the only Tech News outlet that covered them accurately — and without a pro-Big-Tech, Left Wing bias.

If we didn’t exist, the other 11 stories wouldn’t get told at all. How crazy is that?

Thankfully the stories are spreading — with people seeing them over 9 million times last month alone.

If you want to be part of making The Lunduke Journal possible, consider becoming a subscriber. Lots of options, big and small. And all go directly towards daily operations.

Might I make a suggestion?

The Lifetime Subscription (which counts towards both Substack and Locals — and last for life) is a marvelous, one time, way to show support. And it comes with all of the perks (access to the Locals community as well as the official Lunduke Journal forum, & DRM-free eBooks).

You can snag a Lifetime Subscription via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin.

But, heck, any type of subscription (via any platform) is appreciated! Choose whichever works best for you!

Then be sure to go to Lunduke.com and choose the platforms which are the most convenient for you to use — The Lunduke Journal publishes all over the Inter-Tubes!

And, once again, thank you to every subscriber. This work is only possible because of you. You rule.

-Lunduke

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Keep The Lunduke Journal Free!

So far, in 2025, The Lunduke Journal has published 246 shows — being the only Tech News outlet covering the vast majority of those stories.

All without even the slightest influence from Big Tech. No sponsorships, no ad reads, not a penny taken from any company.

And every single story — every article, podcast, & video — is free to share far and wide.

In order for The Lunduke Journal to continue doing this unique work — to keep the lights on well into the future — we need your help.

If you haven’t yet become a subscriber to The Lunduke Journal, doing so today makes a big impact. Pick one of the options below. Big or small. Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime subscriptions — or even simply one-time donations — all make a huge difference.

Support The Lunduke Journal

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Pay Once, For Life (Locals & Substack)

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You Make The Lunduke Journal Possible

Seriously. This is all possible because of you.

We are able to make all of this free to share with the world because of you.

Might I make a suggestion?

The Lifetime Subscription (which counts towards both Substack and Locals) is a marvelous, one time, way to show support. And it comes with all of the perks (access to the Locals community as well as the official Lunduke Journal forum, & DRM-free eBooks).

You can snag a Lifetime Subscription via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin. Lots of options.

But, heck, any type of subscription (via any platform) is appreciated! Choose whichever works best for you!

Then be sure to go to Lunduke.com and choose the platforms which are the most convenient for you to use — The Lunduke Journal publishes all over!

And, once again, thank you for making The Lunduke Journal possible.

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And still not taking a single penny from Big Tech.

Thanks to all of you, August was a truly spectacular month for The Lunduke Journal.

After everything was tallied up — audio podcast downloads, video views, and article views — all of you viewed (or listened to) my work over 9 million times last month.

I’m not sure if that’s a record or not — I’ll need to go over some of the past stats to be sure — but it definitely makes me smile.

It means that the real Tech News — the stories that most Tech Journalists refuse to tell — is getting out there. In a big way. No matter how much Big Tech wants some of these stories to go away.

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Here’s some Lunduke Journal stats (because stats are fun):

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  • 4,488 new free subscribers on the primary platforms.

  • $0.00 (zero) taken from any corporation (no sponsorships, no ad campaigns… not a penny).

9 Million “views”. In one month. Hot diggity!

You better believe I’ll be keeping a close eye on the stats this month to see if we get close to 10 Million. Because 10 Million is a nice, big round number.

And big, round numbers are fun.

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Once again, a huge thank you for every subscription and donation.

Truly, The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without all of you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another show to record… which is probably going to make another Tech company very grumpy.

I love my job.

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