Yes. I'm not usually that fussed with privacy. Well, not as much as everyone else. But this is the thing that's stopping me wanting an Xbox One. Even if the logs were never looked at or opened, it's incredibly unnerving to know there is a 24-hour 3d scan complete with video and audio sat on a server somewhere.

> there is a 24-hour 3d scan complete with video and audio sat on a server somewhere.

i don't think that's happening. in its lowest power state, described as wake on voice, the device is listening (which is not the same as recording) for a prompt to power-on [1]. it validates what it picks-up locally on the device. only once it confirms (again, checking locally) a command to fully power-on, are other sensors enabled.

[1] http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4353580/kinect-always-liste...

It's not - but there's literally nothing technologically preventing it from doing that. It's one thing to put a device incapable of doing something into a room. It's something entirely different to put a device there with the promise that they won't abuse that power either by malice or error.

yes, but that's true of many other technologies as well. and while that doesn't alleviate such concerns, i think its clearly where the market's heading and (maybe naively) am not too concerned with it..

thinning back a few years, the idea that facebook could amass such volumes of personal data based on one's digital activity sparked much the same reaction. in deciding to use their service, there's a clear tradeoff between enjoying the benefits it provides and giving-up (and trusting them with) a lot of personal data - which, naturally, has potential for abuse.

technologies like this new kinect, as well as personal fitness monitors, google glass, smartwatches and other wearable technology, are just a continuation of that trend, now translated more to the physical realm.

it is definitely a leap, as the data being captured is more tangible and the ability to identify one based on it more real, but its still very much the same and feels like a natural evolution as we move more towards a world where everything is connected..

I share your concerns, but it's this also true of most laptops?

I keep a piece of tape over my camera, but there is nothing physically blocking the microphone.

One User Script you may want to install prevents the HTML5 voice input from being activated. It'll prevent HTML5-based browser voice-input if that's something you want, but it's worth considering if you don't need that function.

https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/110566

Thanks! That's a bit better.

Yes I feel uncomfortable enough with my current Kinect that I have it disconnected until needed. However, thinking about it, Siri and Google Now isn't that far either. The leap towards this technology was eventually bound to happen and is unavoidable but what matters is where the data is gathered, processed and stored. Within the device or in the cloud?

I think the distinction between something like Siri and this is that this thing constantly has a live mic listening for a keyword, while Siri is completely reactive to intentional voice input. I guess Google Now is a bit more perceptually-aware, but that's based on data you've already implicitly granted them access to through signing up for their services and feeding those services data. I realize that aspects of this are the same - but video data of my living room and voice recordings of everything in my house feels FAR more personal to me than the emails in my inbox or something on my calendar.

It's not really a stretch to think that that capability provided by the XBOX ONE and Kinect 2 could be used for both good and evil. Same for Google Glass - it's always waiting for your "Ok Glass" trigger - but also processing everything else to see if it that keyword is said.

It's important to know where the data is being processed - but the courts have been pretty forgiving to companies that have overstepped their data-collection boundaries --- and even when they've had to pay a penalty, it's never come close to what I'd consider crippling to the point where they'd never make a similar "mistake" again if it were in the best interests of growing their business.

Why the double standard? Your phone has more sensors than the kinect and can determine your location trivially. Your laptop has a camera and microphone as well.

Its so weird to see this anti-kinect sentiment when we're surrounded by always-on internet devices with all sorts of sensors. The paranoid can just kick off the power strip or, heaven forbid, just not buy one.

Don't forget heartbeat-sensing and detection of "miniscule [muscular] shifts", which combined with precise color analysis on your skin means the Kinect will be able to read a fair amount of the mental and emotional state we normally hide from the world.

I'm putting another tally-mark in my "Things Invented Towards a Cyberpunk Hell" column.