Oliver Stone has warned that ‘Pokemon Go’ could lead to "totalitarianism".
The 69-year-old director thinks the smash-hit Nintendo smartphone game is no laughing matter and considers the app to be an example of the new invasive levels undertaken by large corporations who are interested in mining the public’s data.
Speaking at the San Diego Comic-Con event to promote his forthcoming film ‘Snowden’ – which is about the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – Stone was asked what he thought the security concerns surrounding ‘Pokemon Go’ were, to which he replied: "It’s not funny. What’s happening is a new level of invasion.
"The profits are enormous here for places like Google. They’ve invested a huge amount of money in data mining what you are buying, what you like, your behaviour. It’s what some people call surveillance capitalism."
Stone went so far as to suggest the augmented reality game – which requires access to the user’s Google account to run – could usher in an era of totalitarianism where companies have access every aspect of people’s private and public lives.
He added: "You’ll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society. It’s what they call totalitarianism."
Nintendo have already responded to criticism over the security of the game and claims it could access a player’s entire Google account, including email and passwords.
The app’s makers, Niantic, insisted the move was unintentional and reassured users it was not collecting any exceptional data.
Oliver Stone: Pokemon Go could lead to totalitarianism
