Is OnX looking at way points, stealing spots?

I don't see that as paranoid. From the get go, when I used OnX and now Basemap, I have purposely never named my waypoints "big buck" or anything of the sort. I map roads, trailmarkers, landmarks, etc.

I assume the employees/designers have access to all the info, including your name (as user), state, unit, season (via date) and picture of your kill quality for those inclined to add "harvest" photo on your waypoint. I don't feel the need to be that generous when someone can use that for their benefit or their benefit of their homeboys. Great tools though.

Same goes for fish and game (California) asking me to precisely mark on an e-map where I killed my bucks after filling out kill questionnaire where they have all my data too. I use the description location instead. I feel better and they get their legally required info.

Now, if you could only get them to answer their phones....
 
I've thought about this many times and we would be idiots to think that any for-profit company doesn't collect, use, and monetize any data they have access to. My opinion is that they have so many users that any individual honey holes get lost in the mix and too much data is actually the protection at this point. Your specific 'points' are really only valuable to you. Most areas that hold animals are not a secret and most decent animals already have several people looking at them.

To me, the gains outweigh the risk. I leave my location services on my iPhone for the same reason. Sure, they can track my every move but my apps work good and my family can also see where I'm at in my travels and visa versa.

I think the biggest damage that OnX does is making it super easy for people to research public lands and access points with very little effort. In the days of paper maps, just going down to the BLM and buying the map put you ahead of 50% of the rest of the masses. Now, everybody has access to endless data on the device that is in their pocket. -----SS
 
Sparks Shooter said:
I've thought about this many times and we would be idiots to think that any for-profit company doesn't collect, use, and monetize any data they have access to. My opinion is that they have so many users that any individual honey holes get lost in the mix and too much data is actually the protection at this point. Your specific 'points' are really only valuable to you. Most areas that hold animals are not a secret and most decent animals already have several people looking at them.

To me, the gains outweigh the risk. I leave my location services on my iPhone for the same reason. Sure, they can track my every move but my apps work good and my family can also see where I'm at in my travels and visa versa.

I think the biggest damage that OnX does is making it super easy for people to research public lands and access points with very little effort. In the days of paper maps, just going down to the BLM and buying the map put you ahead of 50% of the rest of the masses. Now, everybody has access to endless data on the device that is in their pocket. -----SS
Click to expand...
Really good points!
 
individual points are probably not very exciting... but what if you have areas where you see multiple users marking waypoints... some of those might already be "known" but I bet if you know how to interpret the data, exclude a few variables (like too many people making the same waypoints) it would be pretty easy to find people's honey holes.
 
Pretty much impossible I probably have 500 waypoints on mine from all around the country and on most pieces of public land within 100 mile radius of where I live and I know allot of others with just a many or more waypoints. That being said I don't mark my waypoints as bucks or bulls just a regular x
 
Yes if you use top rut they have access to your information but if you’re just using it and not top rut they don’t have access.
 
Bookhead said:
Pretty much impossible I probably have 500 waypoints on mine from all around the country and on most pieces of public land within 100 mile radius of where I live and I know allot of others with just a many or more waypoints. That being said I don't mark my waypoints as bucks or bulls just a regular x
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Same… I have a 1,000 waypoints between several states. I imagine there would be hundreds of waypoints on almost every ridge, glassing point, water hole, etc. I think the only way it would really work or be time effective would be to wait for Randy Newbergs or Eric Chessers hunt to hit youtube. Once you narrow down the state and dates that employee could figure out locations if those two are dumb enough to label their kill locations.
 
Sparks Shooter said:
I've thought about this many times and we would be idiots to think that any for-profit company doesn't collect, use, and monetize any data they have access to. My opinion is that they have so many users that any individual honey holes get lost in the mix and too much data is actually the protection at this point. Your specific 'points' are really only valuable to you. Most areas that hold animals are not a secret and most decent animals already have several people looking at them.

To me, the gains outweigh the risk. I leave my location services on my iPhone for the same reason. Sure, they can track my every move but my apps work good and my family can also see where I'm at in my travels and visa versa.

I think the biggest damage that OnX does is making it super easy for people to research public lands and access points with very little effort. In the days of paper maps, just going down to the BLM and buying the map put you ahead of 50% of the rest of the masses. Now, everybody has access to endless data on the device that is in their pocket. -----SS
Click to expand...
I think you are right. Although I do think they could use the meta data to figure out what drainages hold elk in specific units, would be a pretty huge time saver when going into an area blind. Hope they are not doing this
 
Well….my one example of the possibilities of funny business.

Long time family friends own a very desirable piece of private property sandwiched between a huge private ranch and usfs land. it has 5 seperate families that own it and have their disagreements. One of the family member’s teenage son met another kid that was interning for onX…..they thought it would be funny to change the ownership name to his name only…lmmfao….it caused family chaos until he fessed up
 
I am more hesitant to use virtual harvest reporting apps on my phone than I am to mark where I encountered animals on OnX. Nobody at OnX cares where I hunt because I am just an average hunter. Wildlife agencies on the other hand have no problm investigate anyone if they have a reasonable suspicion that a crime was or could have been committed. And, with probable cause wildlife agencies can get your information from OnX with a judges support. I'd still rather use OnX and avoid any need for an investigation by ensuring that I'm a law abiding citizen.
 
As an average nobody my info wouldn’t be worth a turd to anyone but, I have thought about the benefits they would have of crowd sourcing data like less known trailheads and access points, or specific basins etc… using everyone’s waypoints as a “heat map”

My guess is that most of it would probably mirror their roadless area and slope angle pretty closely but there is probably a hidden gem or two to be found.

That, and I bet Doyle Moss’s account isn’t under his own name and doesn’t label his waypoints “230in NT” and “410in7x7”
 
Let’s think about this for just a sec. In 2021 there were roughly 26 million hunters in the US. Say 1/10 of them subscribed to OnX. That’s 2.6 million apps. Say on average 1 single person has 30 waypoints. That’s 78 million waypoints the tech guys at OnX would have to sort through to hopefully find a “hidden honey hole”.

Paranoid much?
 
I rarely worry my DMs are being looked at on hunting websites. The only time I would worry is if I offered to share points and posted PM Sent. ?
 
Nebraskahunter said:
Let’s think about this for just a sec. In 2021 there were roughly 26 million hunters in the US. Say 1/10 of them subscribed to OnX. That’s 2.6 million apps. Say on average 1 single person has 30 waypoints. That’s 78 million waypoints the tech guys at OnX would have to sort through to hopefully find a “hidden honey hole”.

Paranoid much?
Click to expand...
Great point. I wouldn't say no to looking at all that data though.
 
Has anyone ever read the fine print that we all agree to when we get an app?
Most likely tells you right there that they collect data.
Solution may be to carry a GPS just to collect your waypoints.
 
Nebraskahunter said:
Let’s think about this for just a sec. In 2021 there were roughly 26 million hunters in the US. Say 1/10 of them subscribed to OnX. That’s 2.6 million apps. Say on average 1 single person has 30 waypoints. That’s 78 million waypoints the tech guys at OnX would have to sort through to hopefully find a “hidden honey hole”.

Paranoid much?
Click to expand...
Let me just say, if I had access to all this info as an employee of these companies, you'd be right to think I would use it for my benefit.

Even if I wasn't looking for honey holes, I don't need to scour millions of data points from millions of users. However, let's say that if I always wanted to hunt unit XX in Colorado or Wyoming or California for that matter, I could use info to help me e-scout, so to speak. I don't need honey holes to benefit.
 
What about all those guys renting pack animals throughout the west? My bet is that every pack animal has a chip, then you go share your hunting success with the handler when returning the animals and bingo.
 
That's Why You have Your Own,Right DC?

Deepcolor said:
What about all those guys renting pack animals throughout the west? My bet is that every pack animal has a chip, then you go share your hunting success with the handler when returning the animals and bingo.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting thoughts. But as referenced above, there are probably a billion waypoints in OnX. I'm sure some super computing geek could mine some useful data. Unlikely he/she is a hunter though!! :LOL: :LOL:
 
I called on X and brought up this very point a couple years ago. They assured me info was protected and not viewed by staff. However, I still don’t trust them.

I think the majority of us are safe. However, if I was Jason Carter, Founder or some other known big buck killer, I would absolutely mark a turd where I saw a monster and a buck icon where there were none.
 
BeDawg said:
I called on X and brought up this very point a couple years ago. They assured me info was protected and not viewed by staff. However, I still don’t trust them.

I think the majority of us are safe. However, if I was Jason Carter, Founder or some other known big buck killer, I would absolutely mark a turd where I saw a monster and a buck icon where there were none.
Click to expand...
Yep. Those are the guys that need to be worried.
 
BeDawg said:
I think the majority of us are safe. However, if I was Jason Carter, Founder or some other known big buck killer, I would absolutely mark a turd where I saw a monster and a buck icon where there were none.
Click to expand...
On second thought, I think I'm safe marking my spots. :LOL: :LOL:
 
slamdunk said:
You gotta admit those guys were absolutely brilliant creating a hunting app where they collect unfathomable amounts of information and get rich doing it!?
Click to expand...
My bro in law used to do top secret sniper missions while he was in the Marine Corps. with secret and stealthly communication He's also really paranoid about having Amazon alexas, echos, kindles, fire's plugged into the electrical outlets when he's having a personal conversation in his house or my house. In fact he unpluggs all his daughters devices when he enters their rooms. His daughters bring their Amazon Alexa's over at my house and he un plugs them. I used to have a friend that worked at the NSA facility in Saratoga Springs, Utah. He says that facility is the top facility in the USA where the government runs private surveillance, stores the biggest database of surveillance of private citizens in the USA. My friend that used to work at NSA also said Amazon Alexa, Amazon Fire, and Amazon Echo devices do secretly record and listen to your conversations and run studies about you at amazon. In my honest opinon, I think you guys should be more concerned about Amazon Alexa recording and storing your hunting conversations about your chosen honey hole locations , rather than some on x maps employee stealing your onx waypoints of huge buck spots. Guys please unplug that Amazon device when you have an argument with the wife, or if you found that buck hotspot after ten years of building up points. You never know knows listening. :ROFLMAO:(y)
 
Redbluff77 said:
Guys please unplug that Amazon device when you have an argument with the wife,
Click to expand...
I've found it easier to just say "yes dear." And I've managed to stay married to my first and only wife for 34 years, 2 months, 1 day, and 21 hours, and 31 minutes...

On the listening devices, we don't have Alexa or Google assistant, but we do have iPhones. Sometimes one of us will get an ad for something we TALKED about but never searched for. I get if I surf the web for "lawnmower tires", then I'm gonna get ads for lawnmower related stuff. But something from just talking about? Things that make you go hmmm. :unsure:
 
onX definitely cannot be used as Gospel, it's definitely not 100% accurate, just "really close".

Probably like many of you other users, there are a lot of discrepancies, but still a great tool.
 
Of course onX and GoHunt employees are looking at everyone's waypoints when they plan their hunts.

They give you the ability to upload a pic to associate to the waypoint so they have a better idea of the size of the critter.

Is that hillside passable or too much blowdown, too steep? Well, let me look at how many of our subscribers have climbed that hill successfully.

Fewer FT hunters working at Gaiagps.com, gonna give them a try when my onX subscription expires.
 
Can they see our data. sure. Do they use it who knows. Do I loose sleep over it. Big No. by the time I draw that tag again elk will be gone due to climate change 😂
 
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I Don't Run it!

I'll Bet They're PISSED That I Don't!

They're Missing Out On Some Top End PISSCUTTER Locations!:D
 
schoolhousegrizz said:
I was talking to my buddy the other day. He said he doesn't plot way points where he has seen big animals in fear that OnX employees will look at them and know where they are. Thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
Hell if anyone can understand how I mark up my maps all the more power to them. I'm old and don't understand the whole platform so I use it the way I want.

Good luck in figuring out that mess..LOL
 
When OnX shows up at my spots

Screenshot 2024-02-06 104428.png
 
I like having onx, I don't know how they would determine , looking at mine from bandtail Pigeon or javalina what to look for, I don't label my pts and many are access pts , campsites , where I left a jacket, sbys. The worst thing they did was make people with no skills on a map know were they are, and what they have been driving by for years , weather it be a forest corner or blm / state piece, all thoughs secret spots are over. I believe that the better deer hunting in montana has paid the price of onx and what it exposed.
 
There are plenty of computer algorithms that can look at millions or billions of date points and identify trends in that data. It doesn't take great genius to use this data. And it is very unlikely that one point marked "400" elk" would be helpful, but the aggregate of everyone's data might be quite useful.
Bill
 
Useful!

And For sell Before Long For A Nominal F'N Fee!



llamapacker said:
There are plenty of computer algorithms that can look at millions or billions of date points and identify trends in that data. It doesn't take great genius to use this data. And it is very unlikely that one point marked "400" elk" would be helpful, but the aggregate of everyone's data might be quite useful.
Bill
Click to expand...
 
wildfin said:
I like having onx, I don't know how they would determine , looking at mine from bandtail Pigeon or javalina what to look for, I don't label my pts and many are access pts , campsites , where I left a jacket, sbys. The worst thing they did was make people with no skills on a map know were they are, and what they have been driving by for years , weather it be a forest corner or blm / state piece, all thoughs secret spots are over. I believe that the better deer hunting in montana has paid the price of onx and what it exposed.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree except it also keeps hunters from getting tickets hunting on what they thought was BLM only to find out they are wrong and telling their story to the Warden......
I like to stay on the right side of the law so anything that helps that out I'm all in
 
I can't believe how many people are surprised by this. Every app and most electronic devices you buy and or use make u agree to full access to your info to use it.
And all our fearless leaders are worried about is tiktok in the privacy world. Tiktok is probably the only app our overreaching government can't use against you. I don't use or have it but it makes me scratch my head.....
You guys might want to start reading the privacy policy's and user agreements.

So one day i am at work on my work PC. My wife calls on my private phone and says our old cat was having problems pooping. Within a few minutes an add popped up on my work PC with the question. HAVING TROUBLE POOPING?
Keep in mind this PC has no personal logins or accounts. Scary right?
 

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