Xbone to sell user's biometric data to advertisers.

[Alcom1]

Yeah, I'm one of those people, not easily bothered by my personal info escaping like this. Not that I don't understand the feeling against personal info being grabbed by such devices and being used for whatever purpose, it's quite justified.

If you're an American you should be concerned because it directly violates your constitution in several areas, if you live somewhere else it will severely violate privacy laws. If you're British you have no rights and deserve to be abused. There is nobody controlling these companies, they can give this information to whoever they want, the potential for abuse is absolutely massive. The NSA didn't have this kind of information and look at the scandal it caused. In the case of the Kinect it's not only your browsing habits or your phone calls and emails, but your medical data that is being shared without your consent with whoever will pay. There are very specific laws that require the police to get permission from a court before tapping a phone or bugging a house, and here's Microsoft doing it completely unsupervised.

These laws exist for good reasons.

I am American. However, even though it's a constitutional right, that fact doesn't make me any more bothered that my privacy is being violated. It does make me more bothered that other peoples' privacies are being violated.

Maybe I'm just lacking imagination as to how my personal information might be used.

 

[Xdeser2]

Jesus Christ, it's like a mini-telescreen. This is terrifying.

holy shit

OT: Yeah, um I think imma skip out on the Xbone after all. Knowing that MS willingly gives data to the NSA but also knowing that they'll sell that to the highest bidder as well makes me very uneasy

 

[Evil Smurf]

This is another reason I don't trust Microsoft or let them have any of my money. They are scum, fucking scum. I'm going to ring Microsoft now and abuse them.

Perhaps my brother is right to be such an anti Microsoft fanboy....

Results of the call:
The bird on the end of the line knew nothing. Le Sigh.

 

[Seracen]

I am assuming consumers can opt out. However, what is M$ doing as recompense for the privilege of customers allowing use of such metrics?

If the answer is "the value you get from paying for XBL," they can sod off, I'm not allowing it even if I DO buy an XBONE (which, I must face, will happen at SOME point near the end of its console cycle).

Personally, I am more concerned with the precedent this sets. Opening certain doors leads to disaster, even if said disaster doesn't occur from the initial incident.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

The way I see it, there's no stopping them from violating your privacy if they don't want to.

They're already in your PC, and your work computer, and your Windows Phone, and your Xbox 360... this is just a more obvious form of it all.

With that said, I still haven't made up my mind if I actually want to participate in the new console generation.

My gaming PC is still a viable and already paid for alternative.

 

[Auron225]

Someday, this thing is gonna be the inspiration for a book. "How not to design a gaming console". It will list absolutely every last feature this thing holds and explain in vivid detail how and why it was so fundamentally flawed and doomed to fail.

I wonder if Microsoft will be genuinely surprised when this thing doesn't sell enough to break even.

 

[mitchell271]

Geez Microsoft, you make us all laugh at your product and start calling it the Xbone and then you pull a 180 bringing (some of) us back on your side. Then you pull this and we kind of laugh nervously and decide to wait a year for your product once we see the results of it.

 

[irok]

Oh it wont spy on you , its not spying that's a dirty word, its data mining, yes , data mining. But wow just when you think they've finished there's something else.

 

[Fifty-One]

I wonder if some of the folks at Microsoft realize it's an abomination and are trying to destroy their creation without coming out and saying so. That way they don't fired.

Because who in their right mind would think that all of that is a selling point?

 

[Bellvedere]

Last week, Xbox director of product planning Albert Penello said this kind of biometric data does not leave the local Xbox One console unless people allow it to and that Kinect was not designed with advertising in mind. Still, the advertising potential for Xbox One, should consumers allow this data to be shared, would be unprecedented, AdAge writes.

Did anyone read the article before getting outraged?

The kinect doesn't even need to be connected for the console to function anymore and you have to agree to share this data... There's plenty of reasons to dislike the Xbone but this is basically advertisers saying wouldn't it be awesome if they could get users to give them this data.

Anyway... seems like this being able to measure people's attention to ads is an avenue of interest to plenty of companies. I remember reading fairly recently google and facebook were looking into this technology as well. It's an extremely unwelcome idea but unfortunately not unique to the xbox (well the eye tracking component, other biometric data - possibly not for now).

Privacy issues aside, it would be nice to let content providers know the extreme level of dissatisfaction and boredom I feel watching ads and how it legitimately makes me stop using services (I also make sure to not buy a particular product for at least a month after I've seen an ad for it with boycott length depending on obnoxiousness). Though it still wouldn't make advertising disappear and more than likely some service will at least try to actually force users to pay some level of attention.

Advertising makes me angry-depressed.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Why is more effectively targeted advertising a bad thing? It's not going to pop up extra ads, there is no indication they will know anything more than Google or Facebook currently know (that is to say, they would know what interests me).

Maybe it's my marketing degree speaking up but I don't see how this is any worse than ads for something you would never buy in the first place. It's not like they force you to buy things. But if an ad pops up for something I really like and didn't know about prior, then I get the product and love the hell out of it how is that bad? They know that "certain user" likes Elder Scrolls and Netflix, I see ads for those things in places where it might have been a Dorito or CoD ad (I don't like those things). Who is hurt?

Netflix and Amazon have made recommendations to me based in my prior purchases, they figured oh what I like and advertised it to me. Some of those movies (Dredd is a recent example) I wasn't planning to watch but I ended up really liking a lot. I would say effectively targeted recommendations are a benefit as opposed to a problem.

 

[RandV80]

The Xbone has been rejiggered to work without the Kinect attached, right? And without the Kinect, the console can't collect your biometric data. So plug in the Kinect for the initial setup, then throw it in the trash. The Xbone no longer has the ability to harvest your vital signs, and you can play some Titanfall. A necessarily stupid solution for an equally stupid problem.

Or at least until you plug in the latest Call of Duty and it kindly asks you to reconnect your Kinect before you can proceed. Just because MS has changed it so you don't need your Kinect plugged in to play doesn't mean some of the software won't force you to plug it right back in to work.

 

[Saltyk]

Others have already said as much, but this is a horrible idea. The idea that there could be a camera and microphone in my home at all times recording my actions is not an idea I can support. I especially can't support that information being sold to advertisers. Also, wouldn't selling a person's biometric data be illegal?

I suddenly imagine an episode of Law and Order where they contact Microsoft to get data on a potential criminal. Complete with some data about his physical reactions and health which would somehow be relevant to the case.

I don't think so, I had heard that they had made it so the Kinect doesn't need to be connected for the console to function, (despite arguing that it couldn't function without the Kinect because of space magic) but that the Kinect was needed for the 'initial setup' of the console.

So basically what that translates to is, you're still forced to pay the overhead and buy the useless brick if you want it or not.

Nice one mate, truth is i was always sketchy on the details. So the console comes with the Kinect, including the related price increase, requires it for initial setup after which it can be unplugged and put away? In that case, it seems fairly straightforward to opt out of this by not having Kinect plugged in.

I was considering making a joke about George Orwell calling and asking for his console back. Don't think I will now.

I know the other guy already replied, but currently, I don't even think Microsoft knows if the Kinect is required or not. They seem to flip on that one every other day. One day I hear it is required, then I hear it isn't, a couple days later another Exec tells us that it is. So the best answer that even they seem to be able to give you is: "Maybe."

Isn't this the reason why the xbone was banned in germany/Australia?.

Is that for real? I haven't heard about that. Can you site a source? I'm legitimately curious.

 

[Nimcha]

Bit of a shady source, but hey who cares it's bashing Microsoft so it's all good.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Last week, Xbox director of product planning Albert Penello said this kind of biometric data does not leave the local Xbox One console unless people allow it to and that Kinect was not designed with advertising in mind.

There we go.

Is it dodgy that Microsoft want to collect this data from us? Yes. Will this data be used without our consent? No.

End of story.

 

[Saltyk]

Last week, Xbox director of product planning Albert Penello said this kind of biometric data does not leave the local Xbox One console unless people allow it to and that Kinect was not designed with advertising in mind.

There we go.

Is it dodgy that Microsoft want to collect this data from us? Yes. Will this data be used without our consent? No.

End of story.

Oh, but you will give consent. Several people have already stated exactly how they will get your consent. And you won't even know you gave your consent. It will be in the EULA that you have to agree to in order to use the system. You know it. It's about 53 pages long and you haven't read one all the way through in your entire life. It's going to be buried in that. Probably about halfway, so that it won't be too easy for anyone to find.

Of course, you'll be free to not sign the EULA. But you will, at the minimum, lose a lot of the system's features. At the worst, the system will be a brick.

So, yes, you will have to give them permission. But, in all likelihood, you won't even know that you did. Best case scenario, you would have to find the option to not give them permission. Which means you would have to know they were going to do that in the first place and then find something that they probably won't make obvious.