My computer has a webcam and microphone pointed at me whenever I'm using it. Same for many, many people.

And unsurprisingly there are many accounts of this being abused already, heres a few high profile examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_... , http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/rat-breeders-meet...

Indeed. But it happens rarely enough that its usefulness to video chat with friends outweighs the risks for me and many other people. Most people are already okay with a camera on a device that is constantly pointing at them.

I dare say most people are blissfully unaware of how often and how easy it is for someone to use their webcam to spy on them.

Either way thats not the point, I don't have a webcam or mic plugged in, except when i am using it for video chat or gaming, and afterwards i unplug them. The xbox's cannot be removed like my PCs.

But you have the option of unplugging the mic and camera, apparently that is not the case with the xbox.

I do not have that option with my Macbook, nor do I think people have such an option with most laptops that have an integrated camera and mic. I could physically cover the lens and mic, but you can do that with a Kinect, too.

Many new smart TVs do, and they have already begun to be exploited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_2AiaAkvk

would you recognize one if it were on the motherboard? it's not like microphones are big.

no, but i've never heard of a motherboard having an internal mic. Is that a thing now?

Well, laptops. But we never heard of prism before now, which doesn't make it not a thing.

I'm completely building this into a paranoid delusion, but then this whole thread is a demonstration that we lack / are denied the knowledge to dispel paranoid delusions, and sometimes they're right.

Your computer or phone doesn't need a conventional microphone to record sound. They could very easily be hidden in software, or by anything that can detect vibration. Not that I'm worried about a console doing this anyway.

I'm pretty sure a computer with no mic is unable to record sound...