So far as I can figure (I’ve never played it, but heard people talking about it), the artifacts are digital. You have to capture them with your smartphone.
But it does seem that the designers of the game could have used better judgment in choosing where to put the digital artifacts.
It sounds as though the players could use better judgment in capturing them as well.
If that’s so (and I don’t doubt it) it falls on the designers or engineers of the game not to put the hot spots in sensitive areas.
Players are going to go after them even if they’re in the poison-ivy ;’}