Dutch journalists show Pokemon Go player data are being used for military drone software – Massively Overpowered

If this Pokemon Go headline feels familiar, then it should: We’ve reported in 2019, 2024, and even earlier this year about how Niantic Spatial’s actual business model of gathering and selling player data has been and is being used for the purposes of improving AI map models and training food delivery robots, but now it appears that these same data are being leveraged for military drones.
According to Dutch newspaper Trouw, around 30 billion area scans from POGO players gathered since 2021 have been reportedly leveraged by Niantic Spatial and Vantor, which among other things makes a software suite for military drones called Vantor Raptor that uses visual positioning systems to make drones that can operate even when facing electronic countermeasures.

When approached for comment by Trouw, a Vantor rep claimed that POGO player data will not be used but also said the company won’t say “whether or not the model the defense company intends to deploy was trained using that data.” Niantic Spatial also does not clarify exactly what role the game’s data plays in the model Vantor intends to use.
Once again, this reveal is a matter of simply paying attention: The partnership between Niantic Spatial and Vantor was announced in December 2025 for the express purpose of ensuring military drones could continue to operate despite “GPS unavailability, spoofing, interference, and jamming,” and that it would begin field testing of this tech in early 2026. Still, it brings back an old chestnut of how agreeing to data gathering can be used while doing something as innocuous as trying to locate a pocket monster.
Everything we know about Guild Wars 3 – plus what’s happening to Guild Wars 2
‘We are not replacing your favorite games,’ says Guild Wars boss Colin Johanson. Here’s how.
The Daily Grind: What obscure weapon(s) do you want to see added to your MMO?
Flameseeker Chronicles: I’m hyped for Guild Wars 3 – but dreading it too
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has sunk the most in prominence over the past five years?
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer hand-crafted design, procedural generation, player-shaped worlds, or AI content in MMOs?

source