Given everything we hear about the NSA/FBI, this seems like a fair concern.

So they're worried about us accidentally crowdsourcing our spying? Don't we have drones and satellites and stuff?

Yes, also Niantic's founder John Hanke has an actual documented history of CIA funding. It's not unreasonable paranoia for nations to suspect this may be an absolutely brilliant trojan horse especially given the data it collects and the access permissions it requires on some devices.

Yep. I'd be willing to bet money that it's being used to e.g., map the inside of buildings and the day-to-day habits of the person playing.

Because using spy satellites, humint, and hacking Iranian telecoms to gather intel is so out of fashion that Pokemon Go has to be used. Iran also went on to confiscate and destroy 100000 dishes that people used to watch regional and western news and TV at their home. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/iran-destroys-100000-c...

The ban on Pokemon Go has nothing to do with security, it's about controlling the society.

> or whatever it is called

To make it more specific: place a rare Pokémon near the target to have a constant horde of zombies going there and trying to catch it. Or alternatively, place a bunch (3+) Pokéstops close to each other near the target and you get a place where regular players will hang around (there's a powerup called "Lure" that can be dropped on a Pokéstop, which causes increased chance of random encounters with Pokémons in the proximity for the next 30 minutes; if you have 3+ Pokéstops close to each other and each has a Lure on it, you can basically grind all the in-game valuables without moving from where you're sitting).

I'd say the first strategy is most viable, because Pokéstops are placed on the same spots Ingress portals are, so it would be immediately obvious if someone added a new stop/portal next to a classified target.