SRC — Maps & Location
Folder: 05 - SOURCE MATERIAL Supporting: Map Applications & Location Tracking
Niantic / Pokémon GO
Fortune — March 19, 2026 “Pokémon Go players built a 30-billion-photo map that’s now training robots to deliver your pizza” https://fortune.com/2026/03/19/pokemon-go-30-billion-photos-map-coco-robots/ Key facts: 30 billion images, centimetre-level accuracy, Coco Robotics partnership announced March 13, 2026.
Popular Science — March 2026 “Pokémon Go players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30 billion images” https://www.popsci.com/technology/pokemon-go-delivery-robots-crowdsourcing/ Quote: “A stark example of how crowdsourced data, seemingly collected for one purpose, can be quietly repurposed years later for something quite different.”
PetaPixel — March 16, 2026 “Pokémon Go Players Helped Build a 30 Billion AR Image Map of the World” https://petapixel.com/2026/03/16/pokemon-go-players-unknowingly-helped-build-a-30-billion-ar-image-map-of-the-world/ Confirms: Niantic split. Games sold to Scopely (Saudi Arabia’s PIF). Niantic Spatial retained by original investors.
Game Developer — November 2024 “Niantic’s new AI model may have been built by unaware Pokémon Go players” https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/niantic-pokemon-go-ai-model Confirmed by Niantic spokesperson: player scans used to build VPS and LGM.
Niantic Official Blog “Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence” https://nianticlabs.com/news/largegeospatialmodel Editor’s note added: scanning is opt-in, walking alone does not train AI model.
Brian McClendon Quote CTO, Niantic Spatial / Creator of Google Earth: “We know where you’re standing within several centimetres of accuracy and, most importantly, where you’re looking.” Source: Fortune / MIT Technology Review
Google Maps / Sensorvault /
Geofence Warrants
Geofence Warrant Statistics Google reported:
- 982 warrants in 2018
- 8,396 in 2019
- 11,554 in 2020 Source: Google Transparency Report / Wikipedia — Geofence warrant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geofence_warrant
Harvard Law Review — Geofence Warrants (February 2025) https://harvardlawreview.org/blog/2025/02/much-ado-about-geofence-warrants/ Legal analysis of Fourth and Fifth Circuit rulings on constitutionality of geofence warrants.
Albert Fox Cahn Quote “Google is increasingly the cornerstone of American policing.” Executive Director, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Source: Criminal Legal News, February 2024: https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2024/feb/15/geofence-warrants-mass-location-surveillance-and-privacy-threat-created-google-may-be-eliminated-its-creator/
Jorge Molina Case Innocent man jailed six days based on geofence warrant. Referenced in Harvard Law Review article above.
Google Location History Change — December 2023 TIME: https://time.com/6539416/google-location-history-data-police/ EFF quote — Jennifer Lynch: “Nobody else has been storing and collecting data in the same way as Google.”
Google’s History of Failed Privacy Promises EPIC / Accountable Tech FTC complaint: https://epic.org/googles-location-data-policy-update-why-users-need-more-than-pinkie-promises-to-protect-their-most-sensitive-information/ Confirmed: Google failed to delete abortion clinic location data in ~50% of tests by January 2024.
Apple Maps
EFF — Geofence Warrants Apple not known to respond: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/googles-sensorvault-can-tell-police-where-youve-been Confirmed: Apple technically unable to supply location data requested via geofence warrant.
TIME — Google Location Change EFF lawyer Jennifer Lynch: “Apple has said it’s technically unable to supply the sort of location data police want.”
Mobile Carriers / Data Brokers
FCC Investigation — 2022 Letters of Inquiry to 15 carriers re: illegal sale of consumer location data to bounty hunters and rogue law enforcement. Chair Rosenworcel quote confirmed.
Law Enforcement Shifting to Telecoms Columbia Undergraduate Law Review: https://www.culawreview.org/journal/mapping-the-future-of-surveillance-geofence-warrants-and-the-risks-of-chatrie After Google change, law enforcement moved to AT&T, T-Mobile tower data. Cell tower accuracy: 50–500 metres vs Google’s 2–5 metres.
Still To Source
- Niantic Spatial law enforcement data sharing — stated no plans, no technical restriction. Monitor. investigate
- Waze specific law enforcement access cases — confirm documented instances investigate
- FCC carrier fines — confirm whether ever collected #investigate
- Data broker location data sales to law enforcement — specific documented cases beyond general reporting investigate