Director Oliver Stone thinks the future is bleak in a world full of Pokémon Go players.
“[It] is a new level of invasion,” he said of the insanely popular game while on a panel at Comic-Con Thursday, according to BuzzFeed. “It’s the biggest new fastest-growing business ever, and they have invested [a] huge amount of money into — as what surveillance is — data mining. Data mining every single person in this room for information as to what you’re buying, what you like — above all, your behavior.”
Niantic, the company behind the smash-hit app that uses GPS for its augmented reality experience, has already admitted to some security issues surrounding the Google accounts of iOS users. The company made a fix and assured users the app only accesses “basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address).”
But Stone, who is promoting his upcoming film “Snowden” about the NSA leaker, is not a fan and thinks such technology could lead to a “robot society.”
“It’s everywhere. It’s what some people call surveillance capitalism ... You’ll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society where they will know how you want to behave, and they will make the mock-up that matches how you behave. It’s what they call totalitarianism.”
Zachary Quinto, who co-stars in the film, had a less dramatic take on the issue.
“I tried to make light of it. He went a little bit more to the real heart of the matter, which I think is a really relevant point that he made,” he told ABC’s WZZM. “I think it’s great that people are engaging with one another, but I feel like the ultimate goal for us is to be able to do that without these devices in our hands.”
Before You Go
