30-day suspension for "Google Maps image" - Honest player seeking manual review (EXIF proof attached)

General Discussion
1

Hello Wayfarer Community,

I need some urgent help with a 30-day suspension that I strongly believe is a false flag.

First, I want to be completely honest and transparent: I did receive a warning earlier this year for mistakenly submitting a Street View image. It was a fair strike. I admitted my mistake, read the criteria thoroughly, took the community’s advice to heart, and I have been submitting correctly ever since. Thank you all for the guidance back then!

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However, this current 30-day suspension is not justified. I submitted a nomination for a local community garden (“Auróra Klímakert” in Budapest). Support agent Gareth rejected my appeal, stating my ban was because the image was “copied from Google Maps.”

I checked, and while there is a somewhat similar picture on Google Maps (it’s a garden sign, it obviously doesn’t change much), my photo was taken from a different angle and is 100% my own. I personally took it on April 18th with my phone.

(Please note: The submitted version of the photo looks slightly brighter than the raw file I am attaching here. I only used my phone’s basic gallery slider to turn up the exposure because the sign was in deep shadow and I wanted the text to be readable for reviewers. Absolutely no objects were manipulated, added, or removed.)

Because the Support appeal form doesn’t allow photo attachments, I couldn’t prove this to them. I am attaching the proof here: screenshots showing my raw HEIF file with my exact hardware EXIF data (Apple iPhone 14, f1.5, ISO 50, precise date and time). A copied Google Maps image would not have this raw hardware data.

I have been playing for a long time, and I play honestly. While I admit when I make mistakes, this ban completely shocked me. I am more than happy to go back to the location and take brand new photos or a video to prove the spot and my presence (though it’s nighttime right now, so I can’t do it tonight).

Could a Community Manager please look into this, check my EXIF proof, and help lift this ban?

Thank you so much!

2

If it can’t be solved, I guess I’ll have to accept the decision :confused: just ahh… I’m really sad about this :frowning:

3

You will need Niantic staff to comment. On similar threads, when the op has presented concrete evidence to Niantic that the photo in question is theirs, Niantic have reversed the suspension. (I can’t say always, but it definitely happens)

4

If this is the image on google maps in question, that definitely looks like the same photo since the person in the back is in the exact same position

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5

Sorry if I wasn’t clear earlier!

Yes, the image you attached is indeed from Google Maps. I was mentioning it because my own photo is very similar, just much darker.

To prove that I was physically at the location and took my own photos, I am attaching several other shots I took that day from different angles. As you can see from these additional photos and their metadata, they were taken on my phone at the site.

I hope these extra perspectives clarify that I didn’t just “copy” an image, but was there in person capturing the location.

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6

Have you ever upload the photo somewhere?

7

I can’t see a person on any of the op’s images. My eyes might be tired! Can you point to this? :slight_smile:

8

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the head (hoodie?) and the sneakers pop out

9

Thanks - you both have better eyes than me.

The leaves are also in exactly the same locations in both the op’s photo and the one taken from google maps, near to that person.

10

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I can assure you that is not a person. Yes, I admit it kind of looks like one in that heavily zoomed-in, blurry crop, but believe me, a person wouldn’t even fit in there. There was a lot of junk and gardening storage crammed into that spot :frowning:

Since this is a community garden, there are various storage structures and clutter in the back. When you zoom in this much on a shadowed area, the pixels get distorted and your eyes can play tricks on you, but since I was physically there, I know it’s just the garden’s storage.

Please focus on the fact that I have provided multiple photos from different angles taken by my phone’s camera on that exact day. This proves I was there and did not copy an image from the internet.

11

Listen, I want to believe you but your photo is 100% just a crop of the one found on google maps 11 months ago.

This is your photo layered on top of the other one, they’re an exact match. Like, every single aspect is the same to the degree it is impossible you took this photo last month.

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12

The question is whther you ever upload the photo somewhere or give the photo to other people ( other people can upload the foto)

13

Maybe you took your own photos, got mixed up and accidentally included one taken from google maps in your collection, then used that one instead.

It does look like you have been there, so it doesn’t make sense that the photo you used is on google maps, but it is.

14

Thank you for acknowledging that I was clearly at the location! I really appreciate it.

I can assure you I didn’t mix up my files or download anything. The photo I submitted was selected directly from my iPhone’s camera roll, and it is the original raw HEIF file with all my hardware EXIF data (date, aperture, ISO, lens info). If you download a photo from Google Maps, it completely strips that data and definitely wouldn’t show my personal iPhone 14 hardware specs.

15

No, that’s a man wearing sneakers.

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16

This says it was saved from preview though

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17

This is a person. I was on your side trying to figure out what happened until you said this:

The purpose of this place means people fit there. And there is another person with a market bag at the other end of the uncropped photo.

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If you had said “I didn’t know I shouldn’t upload it to Google Maps” before this, I would have believed that is what happened. Now it looks like you manipulated a photo you found online.

18

Yes bc I have I cloud?!

19

Just to address that last comment: no, that is not a shoe. There was a ladder, a shelf, and several crates in that dark corner.

But honestly, I am completely exhausted from trying to convince everyone. I have all my original files and metadata proving I took the photo, but if you guys choose not to believe me, it is what it is. I am not going to argue anymore. The garden sign has been sitting there in the exact same spot for years, so obviously, a photo of it is going to look identical today as it did months ago.

I know the truth, I provided my proof, and now I will just step back, let this go, and wait out my 30 days. Thank you to those who tried to help.

20

So if you take a photo yourself, the raw file will never say “saved from preview”, even if you re-download it from the cloud