Pokémon Go to the drones
Reports suggest that location data collected from Pokémon GO players has been used to train visual positioning systems for military drones. While the developer Niantic and defense firm Vantor have faced scrutiny, the report highlights the dual-use nature of consumer-generated spatial data.
Why it matters
This raises significant ethical and privacy concerns regarding how consumer data from mobile games can be repurposed for military and intelligence applications.
Information captured by Pokémon GO players was used to train models that have been used for military drones and robots, according to DroneXL , from a report by the Dutch newspaper Trouw . The news follows a December 2025 partnership between Pokémon GO makers, Niantic Spatial (née Niantic) and Vantor, a defense and intelligence firm, which is using data amassed from 30 billion Pokémon scans made by players in hot pursuit of a Jigglypuff to train Visual Position Systems for drone warfare.
The article presents the allegations from a Dutch newspaper while including denials from the involved companies.
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