Slashdot Mirror
In China, Fears That Pokemon Go May Aid Locating Military Bases (reuters.com)
The sleeper hit success title Pokemon Go is preventing many people in China from sleeping properly. Although the game isn't officially available in the world's largest smartphone market, some people fear it could become a Trojan horse for "offensive action by the United States and Japan," according to a report by Reuters. "Don't play Pokemon GO!!!" said user Pitaorenzhe on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. "It's so the U.S. and Japan can explore China's secret bases!" From the article: The conspiracy theory is that Japan's Nintendo, which part owns the Pokemon franchise, and America's Google can work out where Chinese military bases are by seeing where users can't go to capture Pokemon characters. The game relies on Google services such as Maps. The theory is that if Nintendo places rare Pokemon in areas where they see players aren't going, and nobody attempts to capture the creature, it can be deduced that the location has restricted access and could be a military zone. "Then, when war breaks out, Japan and the U.S. can easily target their guided missiles, and China will have been destroyed by the invasion of a Japanese-American game," said a social media post circulated on Weibo. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he was unaware of reports that the game could be a security risk and that he didn't have time to play with such things. He gave no further details.
When war breaks out?! Is this a common belief in China? Or are these just the Chinese equivalent of the American-survivalist sub culture?
Just make all soldiers play Pokemon Go. Problem solved.
One single Chinese microblogger with a tin foil hat advances crackpot theory and actual Chinese official can't be bothered to even talk about, and it makes front page of Slashdot?
Shit, guys, lemme tell you 'bout some CHEMTRAILS!
It's not their military that scaring the shit out of people, it's their fucking way they do business.
But Boeing and the USG have already banned the application for all employees, government or civilian.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
The US and Google need a stupid game to find army bases. Right.
Oh how did the US ever find Soviet nuclear silos without being able to get the Russkies to play some video games...?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Citizen be all walking around just like autonomous humans
At least we now know that secret bases are within walking distance, good job Cmdr Bulbasaur
Give Pokemon Go to the soldiers in those bases. No more black spots on maps.
> Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he was unaware of reports that the game could be a security risk and that he didn't have time to play with such things.
Of course he doesn't, too busy trying to fight his way through the tournament and take out Shao Khan.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
Is there really someone so ignorant that they think the locations of anything visible to the sky is unknown? Seriously?
Or is this just more hatemongering aimed at a game that's actually getting kids (and adults) outside and walking around? Oh, the humanity! People are actually exercising and talking to their neighbors!!!!
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
and they're not worried about satellite imagery?
Just because large businesses in China are at the knees of government doesn't mean it's the same in other countries... In fact it appears to be the other way around in America.
This is 2016. The last thing *any* country is gonna do is blow up their source of cheap manufacturing.
Sometimes, the Chinese leadership really impresses me (they are scientists and one economist), and then they say shit like this.
What about all the military personel playing the dumb game??? Are they not somehow on the "secret" bases catching Pokemon??? ...they are doing some really good analysis of the data on "who" is going to these places before the "off limits" zones are found in the data. But that can be already done using the GPS apps in general, this game is overkill for exposing how bad those "google/apple maps" are for things like privacy of "secret" bases. It would be extremely easy to show that some areas are never visited by anyone... then map out low number of "repeat-visitors" areas to isolate who works on secret or highly secure areas.
She can play all the Pokemon Go she wants.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
It's stupid that the Chinese government is afraid of Pokemon Go since Google/Android is already tracking them.
Chinese government creates new arm of military tasked with collecting all Pokemon Go characters located in military bases.
Imagine having an army of idiots precisely mapping with their smartphone GPS's huge areas in countries, virtually for free, on their own time and with their own equipment.
If it wasn't used initially, I am sure after this huge success the black suits have surely contacted nintendo with an offer to access and use all that data. It's not conspiracy theory, it's exactly what happened with Facebook. After it became mainstream and it's potential was noticed, one of the investors is the CIA R&D arm.
It's no secret, the same people who funded face recognition technology startups, license plate recognition, mapping, and who knows what else.
I think it was called IN-Q-Tel or something.
Sounds like someone in china just had a Furby moment.
Abort!! Abort!!
This seems absurd. Military bases are not invisible. Planes, drones and satellites watch them all the time. The Chinese are just messing with the minds of their military people for some unknown propaganda reason..
This is a misconception. Military bases permit cell phones. When passing into SCIFs or classified briefing rooms, you are required to get rid of your cellphones into lock boxes. If you like your battery, you turn it off or put it in airplane mode before doing so.
There are some buildings that are all-classified that require you to not have a phone along, but this would be a "building", not a whole base.
In the field, most people have a cell phone on them for basic communications, and they are rarely collected - only when someone has a bug up their ass about it.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Even better, read the credits :)
"(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Shanghai Newsroom; Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan, Ben Blanchard, Jake Spring and Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Raju Gopalakrishnan)"
So it took 2 newsrooms and 4 additional reporters plus 2 editors to write this insightful story of the reason behind it :O ...and a microblogging site? Reuters doesn't have any other sources left?
I work in government IT. My facility has two Pokemon gyms. I found a Zubat Pokemon at the bus stop down the street.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Zubat_(Pok%C3%A9mon)
Holy shit, and people make fun of "preppers" in the US?
Guess what, China - The US already has high-res satellite imagery of every base, outpost, cave, and jeep (or whatever brand) you own.
It would better serve the Earth's (and your own, as inhabitants thereof) needs if you focused more on not spewing crackpot bullshit like TFA, than worrying about whether or not we notice your target practice city-grids out in the middle of nowhere based on kids not crawling around them looking for pokestuff.
If my morning commute is any indication, most of the Pokemon Go players would have no idea they are on a secret military base...
When someone claims there's a Pokemon on the wing of an airborne plane and everyone inside has to restrain them from opening the airlock.
China is a state with 1.3 billion people and can barely feed itself.
You haven't been to China have you? I have and your description doesn't come close. To anyone who has been there you sound like an ignorant imbecile.
If you tried this sort of thinking in Canada, you'd figure the majority of the country has military bases. After all, we don't even have roads between all our territories! There are many places here you simply can't get to without extreme measures (helicopters or small aircraft only, or extreme hikes for weeks/years on end).
I know China is highly populated, but I am willing to bet there are still areas in China that are basically impassable.
All you'd succeed in doing, at least to Canada, is landing a nuke in the centre of Nunavut. And in China, Rutog County would probably be lit up.
Fear, Pokemon, and China in one CIAdot article.
Implying that U.S. and Japanese intelligence services don't already know where all of China's military bases and assets are at any given time -- and vice-versa.
Nothing to see here, kids.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I bet Google is kicking itself that it sent out those camera-laden streetview cars, instead of publishing an augmented reality game that also could send location and direction-marked camera captures back to the server.
That's not to say that they don't have a finger in the pie with the company that published the game, or perhaps more indirectly via the Android platform.
Since I have already established that shotguns seem to work against drones, I'll next try if they can make pokemons go away - or at least pokemon go players...
And don't forget that the above sentences may be full of irony and satire.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
China is worried that the rest of the world is trying to do to them what they are trying to do to the rest of the world.
Know the solution to that, China? It's really simple, China. Want to know what it is, China?
Hey, China, allow your soldiers to play Pokemon GO on-base in their off time.
Problem solved.
Or, you know, don't try to screw us over and we won't have reason to invade you and, thus, won't need to know where your bases are in order to target them.
Either (or both) of those will work.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Hey China, All your base are belong to US.
I can just imagine all the people vying to be the official classified Pokemon catcher to nullify this clear and present danger to the Chinese military.
Sgt.: "Private Chang, why didn't you report for KP?"
Pvt.: "I had to catch a Ratata that was in the nuclear launch communications center."
Sgt.: "Very well. Carry on."
All your bases are belong to us...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
It suddenly doesn't sound that crazy of an idea.
Distribute pokemons randomly in vast numbers across all continental China, clusters of uncaught pokemons will eventually appear. Filter out the ones appearing over water, and investigate the rest.
One of the things I very enjoyed about college was meeting people from other countries, and learning a little about them. Something that struck me was despite what TV, my liberal professors, and fellow American students were telling me, other cultures and perspectives really do exist, and few of them actually follow the school of thought that is being popularized in the U.S. We tend to take a very parochial, Euro-centric view of the world. So, while multi-culurism is preached, what is really meant is just the one that agrees with Euro-liberalism. There are other ideas, many that are in direct conflict with ours.
For example, China. China is a very conservative country, that has a value system going back thousands of years. They have withstood several invasions, and their culture proved stronger, ultimately subverting their would be conquerers. They are very proud of this. They view the West insistence that only their values matter and are correct as a profound intrusion and disgustingly arrogant. They value family. We no longer do. They value structure and order; we clearly do not. They see the collective as important, we seem fixated celebrating the rebel. They think the majority should set the tone of commerce and culture. We have....well, read the news. Most of all, they teach their kids to love their country. For some reason, we have made it cool to be self loathing
The net result is that they think of us as the enemy. As an extension, the believe war will come because the leftist philosophies of the lest simply cannot leave others alone. If you stop and think about it, this is the main driving force behind Muslim aggression and other little rebellions around the world. They do not follow the party line, and deeply understand that they are being threatened.
So, I guess I am trying to say is that the world is a tough place. There are competing ideas and ways people want to organize their societies. The views that many on these forums hold as unchallenged and sacrosanct create enemies and alienate people. Is your world view really so limited that you are surprised by this?I
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
"Don't play Pokemon GO!!!" said user {insert microblogger's name here} on {insert country of origin here} microblogging site. "It's so the U.S. and Japan can explore {insert country of origin}'s secret bases!"
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Woo hoo hoo. That is such a hilariously pathetic level of paranoid insecurity. That really made my day.
Seriously do we still have this level of middle ages paranoid national fervor? Lighten up and catch some monsters.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
We use hunt and seek pop up drone packs that the Chinese don't even know are there.
Now those do use the Poke database, but that's just a coincidence.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
...doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!
But yeah, sometimes you're just paranoid.
Oh, there are numerous flaws with this line of thinking. Why would the US & Japan, both of who poses advanced spy satellite technology need to get video game data to try to collect info on military bases? You think that they don't already have that info?
Moreover, why would we want to attack a country with a huge population, and massive standing land army? Isn't there some sort of old saying about land wars in Asia? I thought our plan was to just seduce them with freedom and material goods and let them toss out their own government because they think it sucks. You know, say like eastern Europe and Russia?
At this point, it should be pretty obvious that the US isn't really interested in what other countries do with their governments as long as they don't engage in wars of conquest or wholesale slaughter of their own people, so I just wonder what this person is thinking.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
"Johnson, did you read this? The Chinese are worried about us using Pokemon Go to locate their secret bases. Why didn't you think of that?"
::furiously flicking smartphone:: "What? Sorry sir, I'm kind of in the middle of...DAMN YOU PIKACHU!"
If Pokemon Go relies on Google Maps, players in China can expect to wind up in the river... https://twitter.com/isonno/sta...
Random retard in random Chinese forum spouts conspiracy theory and BAM all of a sudden The US is using Pokemon Go to Exploit Chinese Military Bases.
The problem here, idiots, is that Nintendo is a Japanese company.
Check out the big brain on slashdot brad!
Ha! Pokemon Go has now revealed the existence of cloaked Chinese military bases that aren't visible on satellite images like all of the world's other military bases!
(Half-seriously - maybe they have bases hidden under dummy neighborhoods like the US had during WW2, and this could indeed reveal them through apparently suburban neighborhoods in which nobody hunts Pokemon?)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
In China, what do fears-that-Pokemon-Go-may-aid-in-locating-military-bases do?
Alternatively, in China, who fears that Pokemon Go may aid in locating military bases?
The headline lacks either a verb (if the fears are the subject) or a subject (if fearing is the verb).
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Is buy a few hundred to thousand cell phones, load pokemon go on it, and then spoof, or run security personnel through 'sanitized' environments to make those ultra-secure places appear boring and normal so that rare pokemon don't end up there?
Seems like a simple counter-intelligence fix to augmented reality games. Hell if you have the hacker resources, like china, nk, etc do, you could even spoof the IO to the cell phones, or run virtualized android instances to spoof the data without ever having to physically move out in the field. Do that enough, especially if you throw in lots of deserted areas your civilians don't normally visit either, and you can have plenty of bogus data to overshadow things.
That said: This presumes all bases have 'public' cell reception/data access. Is that true? If not, then none of those areas would show up visited by pokemon go anyways, since it is an online game, as far as I know. So if all the ultra rare pokemon end up in cell dead zones, either a blackmarket will appear to use portable cellular basestations to reach those areas, or satellite internet and wifi to connect to go servers and harvest dead zones for rare pokemon. Either sounds extremely negligent on Nintendo's part. They should have mapped pokemon only within a public map of cell station radiuses to ensure the relative safety of their consumers.
That said I think this is really just more propaganda from China trying to slap their tiny dick in Japans equally flat face. I'd say they should try making love, not war, but that just seems to lead to 'War and rape' when you offer the suggestion to East Asians :)
All the slutty women who really want/like/enjoy gangbangs, and teach them that polyandry is alright.
It'll be a self solving problem in a few decades since all those males sharing a female will naturally limit the population due to a woman only being able to pop out a child around once a year, while also relieving all those men of their repressed sexual needs.
Seems like a win win win to me. Society wins with natural population control. Slutty women win because they can take as much dick as they want, while also being financially taken care of. All those horny men win by having a nice warm set of receptacles to relieve themselves in on a regular basis, potentially also having a better financial situation due to shared expenses with the other men in their 'new' GB friendly household.
Of course China's current government would never allow it, since they are too traditionalist. But this would solve the issue a lot better than 1 child per household, and provide an easy and statistically provable way to limit population growth, especially when you consider what percent of the population is probably sufficiently slutty women to be taking it all day long.
... just walk around until you hear the handgun racking and ship the coordinates up.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Ridiculous. We all know Pokemon is a plot to get children to bomb Pearl Harbor. South Park already proved it.
All your base are belong to US!! (Us meaning the U.S.of A.)
I'd agree that this is a funny story but one conspiracy theorist does not seem like news. It looks more like viral marketing for a game... There are crazies everywhere, with irrational views on many things but ignoring them is generally the best option.
Anyway, Google is just trying to make is easier for Chinese soldiers to find their way back to the secret bases with Maps.
Worry about offensive action by my squid army instead.
Like American's don't know the location of static strategically important positions in china! The american superpower had 60 years to watch these places grow, expand and getting spies in china is easy as fuck!
the chinese are scared of their own people, not americans! LOL
Or if the chinese are really that worried, they can order their military people to play pokemon go to make it seem like it's not a base.
People all over the world are now suddenly putting a ton of noise on location tracking, NSA must be freaking out