A report delving into the partnership between Niantic Spatial and US-based military tech firm, Vantor, claims that data gathered from Pokemon Go players could be used to train military drones.
As noted by DroneXL, this report comes from the Dutch newspaper Trouw. Earlier this month, Trouw reported that data gathered by Pokemon Go players could be utilised by tech company Vantor to improve military drone navigation, despite users never being told that this is exactly what the material would be used for.
Niantic Spatial and Vantor entered into a partnership last December. Niantic Spatial announced that the partnership would be in aid of improving drone navigation, to make up for when drones lack GPS data or when signals are compromised and jammed. There was no mention of Pokemon Go player data being used as part of this, but of course, this is where Niantic Spatial gets its experience with GPS technology. There was also no mention of Niantic Spatial assisting with any military efforts, but Vantor has been working with the US military for some time (previously under its old name, Maxar Intelligence), and was given a new contract as recently as this February.
The data is said to...
