The Verge has published a piece that takes head-on a question that has been gnawing on the minds of gamers and consumer advocates alike: should we be afraid of the NSA using data collection technology on the Xbox One?
Verge's piece explores the legal ramifications of the NSA taking such actions, as well as existing laws related to it and possible loopholes the NSA would exploit. Microsoft has generally stated that they have no intentions of using the Xbox One, especially Kinect's strikingly powerful data collection technology, to keep or store data about their users. Experts also concur that the resulting blowback to such actions would be a huge disaster for the company. However, as outside parties like the NSA find ways to legally obtain and leverage said data, it's starting to become a question of whether you should be getting any devices like this for your home in the first place.
Coming back to Microsoft's official statements on Kinect, they've made it clear that you will have control over the Kinect itself. You can choose what it can see or hear, you can pause or turn off the Kinect itself, you get to choose whether the data it collects leaves the console, and some (not all) Kinect controls can be duplicated with Xbox One or other controllers.
The onus for this renewed worry about Kinect privacy concerns is a Guardian article released just last week asserting Microsoft actively helped the NSA circumvent its encryption code for Outlook, ramped up data collection on Skype, and is actively sharing this information between NSA, FBI and CIA. Microsoft quickly responded to deny most of these allegations, but has also been forced to concede that they will hand over data to the government when legally obliged. At the latest, Microsoft is actively petitioning Attorney General Eric Holder to allow them to completely disclose to the public how they provide data to the government.
Overall, this is just a no-win scenario for Microsoft. Even if we accept the most optimistic view that Microsoft is doing the bare minimum to comply with the US government's demands for data collection, that is still a large amount of data about our private lives vulnerable to state scrutiny. Furthermore, the rules have been set up so that corporations are providing this data to the NSA without our individual permission, or even knowledge. They will have to go the extra mile to assuage privacy intrusion fears on the console, even while they're still on the rebound from Xbox One's initial communication woes.
