They've gotta stop the GPS spoofers somehow.
It's not like this was the first solution they jumped to to stop cheaters.
Maybe this was the 80/20 solution over more advanced location anomaly detection methods against their database.
It's not like this was the first solution they jumped to to stop cheaters.
Maybe this was the 80/20 solution over more advanced location anomaly detection methods against their database.
The thing is, nobody cares if you send a signal too weak to go beyond a meter of your pocket. That's why it's totally legal to send FM on registered frequencies as long as your output is under a certain amount. Same with WiFi even.
I heard about someone looking into GPS spoofing once in the context of catching drones, even nearby ones (e.g. fly near to it). It takes a lot of energy to do that and was basically not practical outside of military settings.
Interesting to learn that it wasn't legal in the UK though. I wouldn't know of the legality in the Netherlands, but I know they're in use and nobody's complaining.
edit: And Wikipedia says "GPS spoofing attacks had been predicted and discussed in the GPS community previously, but no known example of a malicious spoofing attack has yet been confirmed"
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/cheating-at-pokemon-go-with-a-hackrf-...
Niantic uses the same techniques they used for Ingress to deal with GPS spoofers, and they're not that advanced. Play for an unrealistically long period of time without stopping and you might get a tempban and flagged for careful examination. Appear to travel at jet plane speeds by performing non-idempotent actions without stopping by an airport first, or doing this too many times in a short period, and you'll also get flagged for possible banning. Beyond that, they're really not doing much and it doesn't really qualify as "advanced localtion anomaly detection". You're giving Niantic far too much credit.