Niantic’s technology enables you and your friends to have a common, shared AR experience. For example, in Pokemon GO, the Shared AR Experience feature lets you and your trainer friends interact with each other’s Buddies and take Group photos. 

To operate such shared AR experiences, the game needs to understand the 3D physical environment of all players who join an AR session, for example where they stand and how they move relative to each other. To do this, Niantic’s technology needs to locally derive AR geospatial data from images taken by the players’ device cameras. This geospatial data is then ingested by Niantic servers to allow multiple players to view and interact with the same virtual objects at the same time in a shared physical space.

At Niantic protecting our players’ privacy is paramount. This geospatial data is stored securely, it is not accessible to third parties, and it is automatically deleted from Niantic Servers shortly after you end your AR multiplayer session. Niantic doesn’t store any personal information in connection with this geospatial data, and it is not tied to player accounts.