Could Pokemon Go be a test to see if mass tracking is possible?

[papercut2008uk]

A game like Pokemon Go, seems to be pointless to me but has become extremely popular all over the world. Not sure if there are any games that work in the same way, but if there are, they have never been this popular.

 

Call me paranoid or suspicious, but could this potentially be a test for mass tracking of movement?

 

I mean people keep the GPS on, their every move is logged and tracked on servers, there is a huge amount of 'players' (test subjects) to see if such tracking of a mass population would be viable with current technology?

 

Could Pokemon Go be a test to see if mass tracking is possible? Or is it 'just a game' and me being overly suspicious/paranoid?

[Torolol]

true tracking is when its tracking the actual person not his/her devices.

A neighbor of mine swaps their tablets among their family members just for the purpose to have larger area coverage in their pokemon go, simply because each of them has different routes they must go in their daily lives.

[LimeMaster]

Nah, there are apps like this that existed long before Pokemon Go. The only reason this one is so popular is because the Pokemon branding to it.

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

There is probably data mining of several sorts going on, but I doubt anything near the levels of "regular" Google tracking.

 

IIRC, Pokemon Go is based partially off of a previous data mining project. I dunno the specifics though.

[episode]

11 hours ago, Zagadka said:

There is probably data mining of several sorts going on, but I doubt anything near the levels of "regular" Google tracking.

 

IIRC, Pokemon Go is based partially off of a previous data mining project. I dunno the specifics though.

It uses the backend of Ingress, another Augmented Reality Game. That doesn't make it a 'data mining project', though.

 

This should probably be in the 'conspiracy' section.

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

Data mining is hardly a conspiracy. They would naturally run analytics on usage and distribution for game updates to be effective. Like i said, use a search engine and your choice is recorded somewhere. It isn't even a malicious act, it is gathering data.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

12 hours ago, papercut2008uk said:

but could this potentially be a test for mass tracking of movement?

 

 

I think it's more got to do with making a large group of people go to a specific place, a type of mind control, motivating people do something, go somewhere.

 

 

[MikeChipshop Member]

Or ya know, might just be a game...

[Jim K Global Moderator]

12 hours ago, papercut2008uk said:

A game like Pokemon Go, seems to be pointless to me but has become extremely popular all over the world. Not sure if there are any games that work in the same way, but if there are, they have never been this popular.

 

Call me paranoid or suspicious, but could this potentially be a test for mass tracking of movement?

 

I mean people keep the GPS on, their every move is logged and tracked on servers, there is a huge amount of 'players' (test subjects) to see if such tracking of a mass population would be viable with current technology?

 

Could Pokemon Go be a test to see if mass tracking is possible? Or is it 'just a game' and me being overly suspicious/paranoid?

uh...no.  It is a game.  Purpose of the game is to provide entertainment and make the developer a lot of money.  Mass tracking?  No....especially considering, statistically speaking, number of players per number of users is relatively small.

 

Now, maybe it is part of a government covert operation to weed out Darwin people?  

[Louisifer]

You do know your phone knows where it is most of  the time regardless of having gps on or not don't you?

 

Both Google and Apple store location data periodically, I can check out my travels via https://www.google.co.uk/maps/timeline  (select a day for a better view), no idea if Apple lets you view location data as well.

 

For those paranoid about apps and mass tracking.. Spoiler... unless you are doing something illegal, you are highly insignificant. :|

 

[Yazoo]

The game is kind of dying in my area now.  A couple of weeks a go you would see large groups of kids roaming around the street holding their devices up or huddled together around a certain landmark, catching virtual monsters no doubt. Now you will see the odd 1 or 2.  The mass tracking thing, does Google do this already on Android?

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

12 hours ago, papercut2008uk said:

Call me paranoid or suspicious, but could this potentially be a test for mass tracking of movement?

It's already been done: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/timeline

[MikeChipshop Member]

20 minutes ago, jjkusaf said:

Now, maybe it is part of a government covert operation to weed out Darwin people?  

The government doesn't want weed out the stupid, it wants them to breed and continue being senseless drones. A inteliigent population is a dangerous population to their government.

 

19 minutes ago, Louisifer said:

For those paranoid about apps and mass tracking.. Spoiler... unless you are doing something illegal, you are highly insignificant.

This couldn't be any more accurate, you're just not that interesting.

[Brys]

13 hours ago, papercut2008uk said:

Could Pokemon Go be a test to see if mass tracking is possible? Or is it 'just a game' and me being overly suspicious/paranoid?

I'll just repeat what everyone said but if you waited for pokemon Go to ask yourself this question then maybe you're not being suspicious/paranoid enough

 

To me Pokemon go just serves one purpose : break your childhood dreams. No, you can't just travel around catching pokemons like ash and his friends did on TV, you actually have to get a job to feed yourself.