Ministry of Information and Communications: Do not play Pokemon Go near Party and State agencies

In particular, it is important to note not to play near or in areas of Party and State agencies, military areas, national security and defense areas, and restricted areas.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has just sent a document to press agencies advising Pokemon GO players to protect their personal information. Photo: Viet Hai

Accordingly, the document of the Ministry of Information and Communications clearly stated that Pokémon Go is an interactive game on the phone launched by Niantic Labs on July 7, 2016. Immediately after its release, Pokémon Go quickly became a fever among young people and attracted attention not only in the gaming community. What makes Pokémon Go attractive and a phenomenon is the combination of a virtual world of imaginary animals embedded in familiar reality, which is the geographical locations where players live. Immediately after officially opening the release version for users in Vietnam from August 6, 2016, there have been hundreds of thousands of users in Vietnam downloading the game from the two applications App Store and Play Store.

In the past week, there have been hundreds of articles about the game and the Pokemon Go community in Vietnam. In addition to information introducing the game’s appeal, features and characteristics, there have also been many opinions from domestic and foreign experts warning about the risks that affect the safety of players, such as being prone to accidents and being robbed when engrossed in playing the game on the street or in traffic.

Governments of many countries around the world are also concerned about the impact on national security because data and images can be collected everywhere in buildings, locations, and locations around players to send to the publisher's server. Even a few days after the game was released in Vietnam, players have shared how to edit the map of Vietnam through Google's Map Maker tool. In addition, there are potential risks such as information leakage, theft of personal data of players on the phone (information in email, contact address, bank account, credit card) if installing a fake version, with installed malware, viruses (currently on the app stores there are still many fake Pokemon GO installation applications).

Given the above situation, in order to minimize accidents and risks that may occur to Pokemon GO players, and avoid affecting public order and national security, the Ministry of Information and Communications recommends that players comply with the following 5 principles:

Pokemon GO is a game that has not been licensed by the authorities to be released in Vietnam, so when a dispute arises that affects the rights of players, it will not be protected under the provisions of Vietnamese law on the management of online electronic games.

Be careful to protect your personal information and data, and avoid storing important, sensitive information on your phone when playing Pokemon GO.

Check carefully before installing Pokemon GO, avoid installing fake and fraudulent applications.

Do not play while participating in traffic, do not play in dangerous areas such as: railways, highways, airports, rivers, lakes, hills, mountains...

Do not play near or in areas of Party and State agencies, military areas, national security and restricted areas.

The Ministry of Information and Communications respectfully requests that press agencies disseminate the recommended content so that players in Vietnam are aware.

According to Infonet