Pokémon GO may have ensnared millions of players with its monster-catching gameplay but not everyone is a fan, it would seem. Hollywood director Oliver Stone - famous for such critically-acclaimed movies such as JFK, Platoon and Nixon - has been speaking about the game at this year's Comic-Con, and he's clearly a little worried about its wider impact.
Stone was at the event to speak about Snowdon, a movie based on Edward Snowden, the man who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013. His concerns are, perhaps unsurprisingly, based around surveillance and companies like Google controlling the lives of its users:
It's not really funny. Their search for profits is enormous here, enormous.
Nobody has ever seen in the history of the world [a company like] Google. It's the biggest new fastest growing business ever and they have invested a huge amount of money into what surveillance is — it's data mining. They're data mining every single person in this room for information as to what you're buying, what you like and above all your behaviour. So Pokémon Go kicks into that.
It's not for profit at the beginning but it becomes for profit at the end, because it creates its own awareness and it gets to us everywhere in the world, until it manipulates our behavior and we start to act like that. It has happened a bit already out there on the internet but you'll see a new form – frankly, a robot society where they all know how you want to behave. It's what they call totalitarianism.
What do you make of Stone's comments? As ever, let us know by posting a comment.
[source digitalspy.com]
Comments (47)
What? I think Miitomo tries the same with their questions that is really market research. Good luck making use of my responses like "gwhil bdfyb v fv g gnnib xf g".
Tinfoil hattery at its finest.
They're data mining every single person in this room for information as to what you're buying, what you like and above all your behaviour.
So what?
Seriously, somebody answer this question for me. I get privacy concerns when they can directly affect your life in a negative way. Being able to read my emails, I'd have a problem with, but this?
"They're data mining every single person in this room for information as to what you're buying, what you like and above all your behaviour."
They're going to have a lot of useless information to sort through
Ern, so long as Google doesn't get any actual governing power, we're not getting totalitarianism. Knowing how we behave doesn't equate to actual control over it.
@Joenen But man, if they know what you like they can totally influence your behavior through, uh...
Personalized adds and stuff.
In the words of h3h3productions: "Can't we just enjoy a good thing without it being made into a bad thing...? No...?" (That might not be the actual quote but you get what I mean)
He has a point but whatcha going do? Nobody had a problem with Google "knowing" your search habits but of course this is taking it too far... IMO since the general population does not want to pay for anything ... Get everything for free ... This is the model we have today ..
Companies know where we are located simply by which mobile phone tower our phone pings to whenever we make a call.
Pokemon Go knowing where we are is no different to all the other companies that have access to that information.
@ShaunOfNintendo Nailed it!
Every big company is doing this anyway. And in all its all about money. That is what makes the world go around.
totalitarianism is where the state dictates how you should behave. a future where the state or corporate-states know what you will do and how you behave doesn't have a word yet.
So basically, he dislikes IT the way is has been for at least 10 years now. Not Pokémon Go specifically.
Good job using Go to increase your personal visibility. Welcome on the hate-train, you leech!
he is completely right
sad but true
Yeah, Stone is another Hollywood type that ought to let his art speak for him. And I wonder how he thinks the savage violence of Natural Born Killers society and mankind in general, you know, because he's so concerned about us....
I do actually agree- any information can be used against you. Marketing is very clever, and it's no accident we buy the things we do.
However, I'm not sure if Mr Stone has ever heard of a little company called 'Facebook'. Now THAT is dangerous.
Question to Oliver: what are we here for if not to fill the time before croaking it? I like to fill my time with fun and funny stuff and will pay whoever wants to give it to me, provided I have the money to pay it. Take all my money and I can't buy stuff.
Pokemon Go just asked me if I knew where John Connor was.
@amishpyrate In those bushes over there...
Or at your local veterinarian.
@Jamotello actually it does. Plutocracy. This is what trump wishes he had lol. But im sure google would find it most profitable too.
Or if you want to be very very specific, corporatocracy.
@amishpyrate my phone just turned into liquid metal and killed my cat.
I couldn't care less.
Money money money! MONEY!!!!
@bluedogrulez This film does have visible elements about modern media and its views on violence.
@Kroko He was just using an example making noise right now. People keept telling this about Google in general since a pretty long time.
@amishpyrate Don't you mean Sarah ?
@Uncensored @IAmDeclanJay Looking at his filmography, I think he knows it.
Someone butthurt about a company making profits. I bet this guy also believes in socialism, santa claus and jesus multiplying food.
@Marce2240 Exactly.
Many platforms already do this, and I actually couldn't care less as long as its not putting my privacy at risk. If they want to learn more about how I behave within the app, so be it - learn from what I dislike and make it better I say!
Of course Niantic is bad, its a sister-company to Google. And now Niantic is part of Nintendo. Though I can't say Nintendo was "clean" before. I think Nintendo nicks lots of information from us, wich I am not very happy about. But that's how it goes!
Hey, gotta promote that new movie. He should receive a decently-sized bonus for linking a monster-collecting app to Big Brother. That's talent right there.
This is more interesting, you've got Kirby and Pokemon:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/22/pokemon-go-state-department-reporter
It's funny, Alex Jones and other conspiracy nuts have been saying similar things.
The sad part is that they've chosen to go after this game, rather than the thousands of other apps and services that do very similar things, or the very nature of cell phones themselves...
But hey...Oliver Stone and Alex Jones NEED a cell phone to operate as businessmen in this day and age...so let's pick on an app that they have no interest in. (these guys are not of the generation that feels any nostalgia for gaming)
I'm not defending Pokemon Go or casting cell phones as evil surveillance devices, just putting things in perspective.
Well, I prefer emperor pikachu over any other leader out there to choose so...
Hail emperor pikachu! Gotta rule them all!
Lol. God I love reading conspiracy theorists rant about stuff. Yes because if Google learns that my favorite colour is black and that my hobbies are video gaming and writing, they'll have complete control over my soul. My favorite rants are Googlebots, Chemtrails, and Tracking people with fluoride from toothpaste.
Does anyone actually take this guy seriously? He's as famous for being an idiot as he is for anything else. And anyway, I've spent zero dollars on Pokemon GO, and yet I've had significantly more fun than I would if I had paid $10 to go see one of his movies. And I haven't even had that much fun with Pokemon GO so that's saying a lot.
I understand the concern around this but personally I'm not too worried about Google etc tracking me. They're most likely only going to use it for what's useful to them - improving their services and algorithms, and selling bulk data or access to targeted data to people wanting to advertise. The former I'm all for, and the latter doesn't bother me. I don't see it being used for a greater evil cause at any time, and I don't really see any real concern for Google knowing where I am at a given time. That data point by itself isn't useful information to anyone but me.
Of course, each to their own and I totally understand people having (equally valid) concerns about this kind of thing, but for me it's not a big worry.
And he's probably not wrong. Someone is likely right now selling the details of everyone who agreed to the terms & conditions and signed up to whatever services to use the game. This is something to consider when Google is even remotely involved, which it is (seeing as Niantic is just spin-off company from Google and Google directly and partly funded the development of Pokemon Go). And, it's not just about using your data to target a few specific Ads at you either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HPw_hx7OME
Note: This is a proper award winning documentary, not just some home made video on YouTube. It's just being hosted on some random's YouTube channel so people can view it. It's also available on freedocumentaries.org, but for some reason they only have it in Spanish (or whatever language it is), which is just stupid. I'm pretty sure it used to be in English, which makes me suspicious at to why it was changed to a language most people can't understand.
Dear lord, I might get adds I'm interested in? The horror!
@Kirk
2. Spanish 414,000,000 speakers
3. English 335,000,000 speakers
@ShaunOfNintendo I love Ethan (h3h3)! Represent the Naysh!
"Ooo look at this guy he went to Walmart to...catch a Koffing. Oh wait he's now heading over to the restaurant probably to get a bite to...oh wait he's just catching another staryu."
The "personalized ads" won't mean much considering PokemonGO is causing me to go to places I never shop at. I just go there to catch Pokemon, not to do anything else. So if anything I'm skewing their data by making them think I go places, when in reality I never actually do. Not sure how this can benefit them.
@SM4SHshorts Pretty much. Besides, it's not like many of us are preserving that kind of info under a lock. If Google wants to know that kind of stuff about me, I have a public Twitter account. There's no need for privacy settings trickery and secret data gathering. I'm putting that kind of info on public display because, as you say, I couldn't care less.
I don't know, this kind of comments always sound like either conspiracy theorists or technophobes to me.
If you're not paying for a product then the product is you.
It is what it is, Pokemon GO has coerced many people who formerly had their GPS turned off all the time to now turn it on all the time.
If Oliver Stone has ever used the facebook app on android, then he's already granted 'big brother' more permissions than Pokemon GO.
I think there are legitimate discussions to be had about this new technology and how it will be used in the future, but "old man yells at things young people like" is the wrong way to go about it.
So here's a question: if they are using the data to market things that I actually would be interested in, isn't that better than mindless marketing campaigns on commercials that have nothing to do with my interests. If the marketing materials are geared towards things I like, it's a win/win.
@Monado_III
Totally agree.
Don't so many other apps already do this? If you got nothing to hide, what's the problem.
I am not saying that Oliver Stone is wrong.
But he certainly is misguided at best given that other apps do similar if not more things.
In life, there are tradeoffs. I use store shopping cards. They know what I buy. As a result, I get coupons. I like this invasion of privacy, it saves me money.
The idea of living off wind turbines and solar panels in a remote region of Montana (so basically, all of Montana) with a tinfoil hat on to protect against government satellite screening with a safe full of gold instead of cash may be appealing to some, but personally, I'd rather take the risk that Google has a special interest in me and wants to control my life than live in Montana. With or without the tinfoil hat, I'd just rather not live in Montana
Tap here to load 47 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...