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- Caught Pikachu: Pokémon Go players' data could be used for UAV navigation system
Caught Pikachu: Pokémon Go players' data could be used for UAV navigation system
Pokemon hunters were suspected of unwittingly aiding combat drones. This is the conclusion reached by the journalists of the Dutch edition Trouw. They are confident that the Pokémon Go players, by creating photo panoramas for receiving awards, helped create a highly detailed map that can be used for military purposes for UAV strikes. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
In search of Pokemon
"Millions of Pokémon Go players, who have been scanning the neighborhood for years in search of rewards inside the game, presumably unknowingly contributed to the creation of a highly detailed navigation system developed by the American company Niantic Spatial, isolated from the original Pokémon developer G o, which will now be used in military drones and robots," the Dutch edition of Trouw reported.
The authors of the publication are confident that almost 30 billion scans collected from hundreds of millions of players have become the property of Niantic Spatial. Based on them, she created a visual positioning system (VPS), an analog of GPS that works without a satellite signal. The VPS determines the location from the camera image with an accuracy of several centimeters, based on just two or three recognizable points in the frame.
The company itself denies using Pokémon Go data. However, according to Trouw, it did not specify whether the system designed for defense projects was trained based on information received from the players.
At the same time, Niantic Spatial reported that the scans of the players were used to train an "early version" of the navigation model. The company also insists that the players voluntarily agreed to the user agreement, that is, they granted the company the right to resell the footage to third parties.
They helped without realizing it.
After the sale of Niantic in 2025, Niantic Spatial appeared, which received an accumulated archive of visual data. It was he who was used to create the navigation system. In support of their words, the authors of the publication cite information that Niantic Spatial has signed a contract with Vantor, which makes navigation for military drones.
"Without the huge number of scans from all these gamers, the development of this system would never have progressed so quickly," says Jeroen van den Hoeven, professor of ethics and technology at Delft University of Technology. He suggested that players indirectly, perhaps minimally, but still effectively contributed to military applications.
"It is difficult to determine exactly which parts of the 3D model were trained using Pokémon Go scans, as the AI models are enriched with multiple datasets and no longer contain traceable raw data," the specialist added.
Trouw writes that they want to use visual navigation technology as a replacement for GPS where satellites do not pick up or the signal is intentionally jammed. For example, in the Ukrainian conflict zone, where electronic warfare systems are actively operating.
However, experts warn that such technology threatens privacy. Some players accidentally scanned their apartments, and the developers admitted that they needed as many such pictures as possible.
Technology is needed not only by the military. Niantic Spatial, for example, helps Coco Robotics, a company that creates robot couriers who drive without a driver. Nevertheless, experts advise the EU authorities to take control of the collection and sale of user data so that people know where their information goes.
A very controversial game
The Pokémon Go game, released in 2016, has repeatedly attracted criticism from authorities around the world. The main complaints boiled down to three topics: threats to military security, risks to the physical safety of players and others, as well as the protection of personal data.
The game has been most consistently criticized in countries concerned about possible information leakage through geolocation and smartphone cameras. Iran became the first country to completely ban Pokémon Go on its territory in August 2016.
Israel also reacted promptly: as early as August 1, 2016, the command of the Israel Defense Forces banned military personnel from playing Pokemon Go on military bases. Officers and soldiers were warned that the application activates the cameras and geolocation modules built into the phones, which can reveal the location and internal arrangement of military facilities.
Kuwait went even further, with the authorities fearing that the game could be used to gather intelligence. The government promised to apply "zero tolerance" to any attempts to approach strategic facilities.
China did not formally ban Pokémon Go, however, in the same year 2016, it actually blocked its entry into the market. The State Administration for Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television said it would not allow the application "due to the high level of responsibility for national security and the safety of citizens' lives and property."
The second biggest complaint about the game is the threat to road safety. And the third is a violation of privacy.
Questionable
Some analysts disagree with the conclusions of the Trouw article, recalling that in the past, one of the main journalists of this Dutch publication has already been convicted of inventing sources of information to create publications.
They also believe that the data that was collected is obviously outdated, since players began receiving rewards for photo panoramas only in 2021.
In addition, there are other navigation services linked to photos of the area. The images subsequently become part of a single database.
Previously, Anthropic had signed a contract with the Pentagon, but after its Claude model was used in combat operations, including the war in Iran and the capture of the Venezuelan president, the company banned the use of its AI for violence. In response, the US Department of Defense recognized Anthropic as a "supply chain risk", excluded it from the program to create classified networks and replaced it with competitors.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
