josemlopes said:
I just dont know why people are so worked up on this
The simple answer...
...
Humans are irrational creatures. A GPS positioning smartphone can gather a whole lot more of useful data about your activity then a web camera can. However, the fact that the camera sees you makes it more personal; it makes it more creepy.
In my line of work, I've seen allot of people that don't trust web cameras built into laptops and computer screens. They usually cover up the camera with a piece of torn post-it note or some tape and allot of computer companies are now adding sliding covers to the camera, to accommodate those with a camera phobia who wouldn't otherwise consider their models. Yet these very same people are usually perfectly happy about walking around with a GPS smart phone that could theoretically track their position, phone usage and web history, not to mention having its own built in camera (but that's ok because the phone is most of the time in a pocket, anyways).
Microsoft is getting all that flack for their Kinect because they're being upfront about all the creepy little things that their device can do and vague about the things that could calm down these fears. It uses facial and voice recognition. It tracks all your movements. It needs to be plugged into the Xbox for it to work. It's always on, even when the console is powered down (although vague reports from Microsoft state that it can be powered down as well, possibly, maybe). This stuff is nightmare fuel for people with web came paranoia.
So the short answer...
It's simply irrational fear. When some people see a web camera they don't see a camera, they see this: