Rude awakening that there were people who played the game and did not realize they were contributing training data.

Tinfoil Hat Time

I’m pretty sure Pokemon Go was used, successfully, by law enforcement to look for the bodies of missing people.

• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pokemon-go-body-river-wyoming-leads-woman/

• https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/outreach/awareness-months/pokemon-go-player-finds-dead-body-in-new-hampshire-park/520-6577bd86-9e2d-4dbd-8f6c-de828dcf297e

• https://laist.com/news/pokemon-go-body

• https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/man-playing-pokemon-go-finds-dead-body-nashua-nh/

• https://mashable.com/article/pokemon-go-dead-body-discovered

• https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-diego-dead-body-pokemon-go-20160715-snap-story.html

• https://www.10news.com/news/pokemon-go-players-discover-body-at-marian-bear-memorial-park

• https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/wyoming-teen-finds-dead-body-while-playing-pokemon-go/523-47e3fd94-be65-40bd-a201-6507ffcc0a52

• https://www.ksat.com/news/2016/08/26/pokemon-go-players-find-mans-body-in-new-braunfels-cemetery/

And the list goes on.

When the game was new I suspect that law enforcement were asked to provide lists of areas they would like to search but did not have the time or manpower to cover, and that these areas were used as points of interest in the game.

There is also the fact that the CEO of pokemon go’s developer/publisher was partly funded by the CIA when his company was building what would end up being Google Maps. I would be surprised if he didn’t keep a few contacts in the government given his career.

Maybe I’m paranoid, maybe a boom of people wandering around aimlessly would have found just as many bodies.

We are acting surprised but I saw more than a few online discussions over the years that this was exactly what Niantic was collecting the data for.

Pokemon GO to werk