The backlash against the wildly popular augmented-reality game Pokemon Go has reached a new height, with the State Palace becoming the latest high-profile establishment to impose a ban on staff and visitors playing the game.

At least two signs announcing a ban on "playing or looking for Pokemon" within the Palace walls could be seen on the premises on Wednesday.

One sign was placed at a security gate through which Palace staff enter the building, another at an entranceway reserved for vehicles used by the corps diplomatic and State Secretariat.

Despite the signs, apparently not all palace workers are aware of the game, which has so far been released only in the US, New Zealand and Australia. Some members of the palace security detail appeared confused as to the sign's meaning.

Palace press bureau chief Bey Machmudin said the ban was imposed more for disciplinary than security reasons.

"The reason is simple: This is the office of the President and not a playground. People are here to work, not play games," Bey said.

A number of government bodies, including the Indonesian Military (TNI), have expressed concerns about the potential threat posed by Pokemon Go.

The Navy recently imposed a ban on its personnel playing Pokemon Go, arguing that the use of GPS on smartphones enabled third parties to obtain detailed views of restricted military facilities.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu also cautioned Pokemon hunters to be very careful, as their private information could be gleaned through the app.

Technology and gaming experts, however, have accused the government of exaggerating the threat of a "harmless" online game, with the app posing no security threat, according to Pratama Persadha, the chairman of the Communication and Information System Security Research Center (CISSReC).

"Data from the game are sent to the developer's server in California [in the US] named Niantic, not to some shady [third] parties," Pratama told the Post.

When asking for permission from users, the Pokemon Go app only asks for general information from the users and doesn't ask for "run at start-up", which most cyber attacks via malware require, he said.

According to CISSReC's research, the data sent to the app's server every time a player catches a Pokemon's monster is no more than 50 kilobytes, not enough to produce high-quality pictures.

It is as such unlikely that the app could intentionally be used to store gamers' photos and send them to the server because a regular photo with decent resolution usually has a size of approximately three megabytes, Pratama said.

Indonesia Cyber Security Forum (ICSF) cofounder and chairman Ardi Sutedja, meanwhile, argued that the ban on military personnel playing Pokemon Go might be justified, if only for reasons of productivity.

"Why would TNI soldiers be trying to catch Pokemon when they're on duty?" he asked.

Eddy Lim, the chairman of Indonesia & Sports Association (IeSPA), said that any problems arose not from the game itself, but from gamers.

"Imagine if a Pokemon suddenly appeared in front of a monitor that happens to show confidential information, and a government official pointed his camera at the screen to catch the Pokemon monster, would that be the Pokemon's fault?" he wondered.

(The Jakarta Post, 21 Juli 2016)