A retired senior Russian intelligence official is warning his colleagues in the spying game to stay away from PokemonGo.
Alexander Mikhailov, a former Major-General in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB (the successor to the Soviet KGB), says the game poses a serious national security threat in the hands of oblivious government officials or military personnel.
“Imagine, that these ‘animals,’ appear not in a park but in a secret location where the user who is a soldier or a security official takes a photo of it,” he tells RIA Novosti. “[The state or military official] will be doing it out of their own will. It’s the ideal scheme of collecting data on intelligence services. No one will pay attention, since [the game] is a trendy thing to do.”
Mikhailov said he wasn’t certain that any spy agencies were using the game yet, but predicted that it is only a matter of time. “It is unlikely that intelligence agencies will pass up the chance to exploit this data-gathering opportunity,” he said.
The game is an augmented reality one where players catch Pokemon in their immediate surroundings with their mobile phone. The game is not due to launch in Russia until later this week, but some Russian users have created U.S. accounts in the app store specifically to gain access to the game.
So far at least four New York City police officers have been filmed catching Pokemon, around the city.