German Consumer Protection: Xbox One is a trojan horse

TLHBO

"These are indeed quite some time now but it was improved even further. For some people, the system awakens the fear that the very good detection of persons in the area and their movements could lead to quasi Microsoft spied the most intimate life of users and queries over the Internet. Besides, good cameras with online connectivity are already long in many computers and televisions that are in households that standard."

agree do i, fears of people german totally are quasi very good founded in truth as are long in computers and televisions is!

Well you know if it's a politician involved he must be telling the truth.

Indeed, I will never buy an xbox one due to this. 

[QUOTE="-Damien-"]This thing is not gonna fly in Europe. it's pretty much DEAD ON ARRIVAL http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=575133[/QUOTE]

Yeah... the same country that in 2012 said they would ban 360 sales.

Europe has taste, which is why the PlayStation always does well here.

Europe has taste, which is why the PlayStation always does well here.

Davekeeh

Yeah and then they find out you can turn it off in settings.    I will keep mine on, not paranoid like some

The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

[QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?da_illest101

Madcatz kinect blockbox lol

[QUOTE="da_illest101"][QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?Mr720fan

Madcatz kinect blockbox lol

The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

Actually,

Do a search... lots more like this.

The problem is that Kinect 2 along with the rest of XBO is designed and marketed to be an always-on, receiving audio and visual input at all times, device.

If you could disconnect the thing (like I do with my PS eye) or cover it up (like I do with my laptop) then that wouldn't be a problem. But that defeats the entire purpose of the device in the first place.

The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

[QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?lhughey

The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

First: if your laptop camera is being used without your permission, that's because someone hacked it. It means you're a victim of a crime, and you can even put the police after the sob who's watching you.

Second: in this case, there are mandatory internet checks, that verifies console, user and game info to "validate" it. The level of control they'll have over your system is unparalleled with what MS or Apple has over your laptop camera.

Third: from MS' own statements about the issue, personal info will be recorded. Though you'll have some level of control on how it will be used, and with whom will it be shared, they didn't say you could forbid the recording at all. They also didn't say how you would know what they are collecting, when they are doing it, and for what purpose.

""We are designing the new Kinect with simple, easy methods to customize privacy settings, provide clear notifications and meaningful privacy choices for how data will be used, stored, and shared"

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-attempts-to-calm-xbox-one-privacy-worries-6408951

Fourth: no one actually believes it will be "always watching". It does make sense, though, that they can use bots (apps that they could run from their servers) that are triggered to record consumers' reactions to certain moments in ads and games, to improve them in the future, and also to show you similar content in the future, that you may like.

Fifth: if your Kinect got hacked in any way, it would be a lot harder for you to find out about it and to solve that problem, since you've got a lot less control over it than you have over your laptop camera, OS and installed apps.

Sixth: If MS used it in breach of contract or ToS/EULA, how would you even know about it...

Seventh: this relates to the first difference - in the case of MS violating the ToS/EULA and recording more of your habits than you allowed, you'll first have to prove your case (prove the breach of contract) before you could even think of suing them. It's not the same case of an individual hacker, that's economically powerless, that's not the owner of servers that control and have access to your personal info under contractual protection.

TLHBO

call_of_duty_10

[QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?da_illest101

[QUOTE="da_illest101"]

[QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

[QUOTE="percech"][QUOTE="da_illest101"] Because you have control over it. Hell you can break it if you are really paranoid and your laptop will still work, but you can't do that with Kinect since it always on, I don't think you can turn it off, but they might change that. Though I wonder what would happen if people would just put a box over Kinect when they are not playinghoosier7

Germany is PC land anyway.

yeah you know you wanna be Xboned

I am very interested in whether there will be a formal inquiry about the XBone.  If so, we may find out exactly what information is or isn't being farmed from the thing.

Lemmings making excuses for Xbox One in this thread is so surprising.

TLHBO

call_of_duty_10

[QUOTE="da_illest101"]

[QUOTE="percech"]The argument about Kinect always recording you or "watching" you is completely ridiculous. How come nobody complains about the integrated cameras on their laptops?percech

They did say you can turn it off (the console), but where did you see that you can disable Kinect? Isn't it necessary to interact with the system?

Europe has taste, which is why the PlayStation always does well here.

Davekeeh

[QUOTE="call_of_duty_10"]

TLHBO

AmazonTreeBoa

I value my privacy, hence why I do not own a smart phone, nor will I ever own an X1.

In all fairness, I've likely already been investigated thoroughly by NSA for them to give a s*** about watching me through Kinect.  Then again, I do have a truly awful sunburn they could meme-ify....

[QUOTE="percech"][QUOTE="da_illest101"] Because you have control over it. Hell you can break it if you are really paranoid and your laptop will still work, but you can't do that with Kinect since it always on, I don't think you can turn it off, but they might change that. Though I wonder what would happen if people would just put a box over Kinect when they are not playing

hoosier7

One thing I have seen is that apparently you can turn off the camera via settings, but not a mention about the microphone.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57585620-75/microsoft-talks-xbox-one-naming-privacy-and-more-q-a/

"It's not the case where you'll be able to remove the camera altogether. But you'll be able to put the system in modes where you can be completely secure about the fact that the camera is off and can't see you."

I guess if I get it, I might be OK with resorting to switching the whole system off, but I don't understand why it should need Kinect connected at all. It's understandable selling Kinect with every console, to encourage developers to use it, but even that's disappointing for me.

Has there ever been a console with so much negativity? Shit's crazysilversix_

This is unexpected.  What I thought was hillarious was the introduction to one of the articles saying, While America hates freedom, some nations of the world don't.

How did MS screw up on a product this bad.

BTW the XBOXone may also be illegalized in Australlia.  XD

I just want to say my Wii U is awesome it's what's on right now waiting for me to finish blogging so I can play. XD

Europe has taste, which is why the PlayStation always does well here.

Davekeeh