Kinect May Start Watching You To Target Advertising

The Kinect's nearly flawless facial recognition system is a fun little way to sign in to your profile, but soon the device may start identifying what's happening in your living room and sending the information back to Microsoft's computers. Before you imagine a 1984 style conspiracy where your complaints about the government will be broadcast directly to the Ministry of Kicking Your Ass, Microsoft says they would use the information to target advertising.

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You can sign in through facial recognition and now this.

You can already think of the think that might be inherently wrong with this, and what about all the people that play their video games naked?

xbox live is already nothing but ads, remember kids kinect is watching you, its always watching. Leave it to MS to think of a new invasion of privacy.

reply to post by Lysergic


Mental note... No more naked X-boxing.....

This is going to leave a huge and painful hole in my usual Friday night agenda....

An excellent point. Most people don't think about that. and they probably should!!

(I've been a gamer my entire life and don't ever recall being naked. But if they want to watch, I'd be flattered!)

even when I love gaming, I'd never buy the Kinect. It sounds funny, but the solely act of having a device that looks what I'm doing scares me to death. It's like the Big Brother, dunno.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by Lysergic

 

Mental note... No more naked X-boxing.....

This is going to leave a huge and painful hole in my usual Friday night agenda....

edit on 11/12/10 by Hefficide because: bad bb tag and addition

I'd say more naked X-Boxin'

then you wonder why you keep getting viagra ads on your xboxlive screen?

reply to post by Lysergic


In reality I am not excited about Kinect and worry that these types of interfaces are going to become the standard and the option of a hand held controller will no longer exist. I say this because I play games to avoid physical activity and to relax.

In my estimation if I want to climb a mountain - as one might in a role playing game - I'll just go climb a real mountain. I don't want my relaxation activities to end up being as, or more physically trying as my actual real world hobbies/activities/jobs.

Although, as a side note (and possibly even a separate thread idea if anyone wants it) imagine through automation and this technology that one could literally do a manufacturing/manual labor kind of job from their own living room. An on site avatar-esque robot mimicking your real world motions.

Great, thanks Bill Gates... Now my freaking X-Box is actually job training...All the fun is gone.

For THAT I intend to play naked X-Box even MORE often and vengeance will be mine! In the near future Microsoft employees will have to draw straws just to determine who has to watch MY feed!

~Heff

360 uses electricity all the time, looking for wireless pads, and now it can turn on using voice controls, which means they are constantly listening as well....I will not be letting Microshaft have a camera in my game room

And if you look at your online safety tab it had an option for voice data collection, on my box it says not allowed

Muwhahaha!

Hmm. If kinect really does such evil things, like look into your home, I think I know what my fifteen year old who lives with his father is getting for XMas. At least someone can keep an eye on things there, for marketing purposes of course.

Of course Microsoft would never consider anono tips to police departments if the Kinect SEES illegal activity, and I am talking illegal well beyond"classic recreational" activities gamers often co engage in while playing.

Because no one's kid leaves their XBox equipment on while doing other stuff, do they? Like leave it on pause ALL DAY while they are in school, to retain a crucial point in the game?

Muwhahahaha!

The evil is endless for this one.

A thread already exists regarding the spying possibilites of the Kinect as well as the targeted marketing possibilities.

Kinect IS Spying on You

Check it out for more information.

Okay... thanks for letting me know. I will not be buying the Kinect than. I am not worried about what the kinect will do but I am now worried more about what video game companies will be doing if they decide to adopt Microsoft's technology in the future. Will it become an industry norm? I sure hope not.

I have a friend that owns a kinect and I asked her about it. She told me that the kinect tells the user about its ability to do this and gives you a choice to allow it or to block it. Of course she blocked it. Not saying that this could not turn into something else long term but at the moment it requires you to authorize it to do so.