Data collected from Pokémon Go players has been used to train artificial intelligence systems designed to help military drones navigate and locate themselves in war zones, raising significant privacy concerns about how gaming data is repurposed beyond its original entertainment context.
Pokémon Go, the augmented reality mobile game that launched in 2016, became a cultural phenomenon with over 800 million downloads by 2018. The game required players to physically explore real-world locations using their smartphone cameras to capture virtual creatures. In 2021, the game introduced AR Scans, a feature that rewarded players for scanning real locations with their devices. Users had to opt in to participate and voluntarily upload the recordings.
Niantic, the company that created Pokémon Go in partnership with Nintendo, collected location scan data from players before selling its gaming division to Saudi Arabian-owned Scopely for 3.5 billion US dollars in 2025. The historical scans were used to train Niantic's artificial intelligence models to recognize and interpret physical spaces. Niantic Spatial, a spin-off company from Niantic, subsequently announced a partnership with Vantor, a company specializing in spatial detection software for drones used by some militaries.
The partnership addresses a critical gap in drone operations. According to the companies' announcement, it tackles problems including GPS unavailability, spoofing, interference and jamming. The technology allows drones to navigate and coordinate precisely in areas where satellite signals are compromised or unavailable. Vantor later secured a deal with the US Army worth up to 217 million US dollars for training software.
Both Niantic Spatial and Vantor stated that ground scans from the game were not directly provided to Vantor as part of the partnership, but rather the scans were used to train Niantic's foundational AI models. A Niantic Spatial spokesperson explained that AR Scans were submitted voluntarily by players who opted into the feature and were subject to the applicable terms of service and privacy policy.
The use of civilian gaming data for military purposes has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and technology experts. Tom Sulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, emphasized that most people do not read extensive legal documents when playing video games. He called for regulators to focus on tests that prioritize user interests and fairness to prevent such exploitation.
Dr Rob Nicholls, senior researcher at the University of Sydney's centre for AI, trust and governance, suggested this case represents only the beginning of similar data repurposing incidents. He noted that military fitness tracking data from apps like Strava has previously been used to identify military facility locations, prompting various militaries to restrict GPS-enabled devices.
The disclosure highlights the ongoing tension between data collection practices and user privacy expectations as artificial intelligence development accelerates and demands ever-larger training datasets.