China is warning citizens about the dangers of augmented reality games, as they can collect geo-data and transfer it to other countries for military purposes, according to the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China.
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According to the agency, information is being disseminated in foreign media about the company that developed the famous augmented reality game, which gained access to 30 billion geo-location files.
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The company has a partnership with a military-industrial enterprise in another country, so there is a possibility that this data may be used for military purposes.
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“A number of cases made public in recent years show that the harm caused by the illegal collection and misuse of gaming data is becoming more and more obvious and deserves close attention,” the ministry writes, commenting on the information disseminated about the augmented reality game.
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The authorities urge citizens to be wary of data collection tasks coming from foreign organizations, games, or untested platforms under the guise of “research” or “game testing.”
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The Ministry also urges not to grant foreign augmented reality games permissions such as “always locate” and “camera/gallery access.”
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“Do not neglect the security of geodata,” the agency writes.
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The authorities also ask to inform the state security authorities about suspicious activities that threaten national security, such as illegal collection of geodata through games or other platforms in China.
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The Ministry does not name the company or the augmented reality game. However, as noted by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP), the details disseminated in the media coincide with the recent controversy surrounding the Pokemon Go game developed by the American company Niantic in partnership with Japanese companies Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.
