Pokemon Go has become nothing short of a global phenomenon. It has practically saved Nintendo from financial meltdown and given over 30 million people a reason to get lost in the park.
Not everybody sees the mobile game as a positive force for good though, film director Oliver Stone for example sees it as something far far more sinister.
According to Time magazine the director said: “It’s not funny. What’s happening is a new level of invasion.”The American reportedly voiced concerns over the game as he promoted his new movie about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden at Comic Con International.
“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.””
He added: “You’ll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society. It’s what they call totalitarianism.”
Pokemon Go, which is free to download, has faced criticism over 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 that it was not collecting any exceptional data.
Stone was joined at the Comic Con panel by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Edward Snowden in the upcoming film and visited the former NSA analyst in Moscow where he is in exile.
Stone, who won a Best Director Oscar for Platoon, claimed every major movie studio turned down his new film, forcing him to find finance in France and Germany.
Snowden is due to be released in America on September 16. A UK release date has yet to be confirmed.