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Microsoft will "aggressively challenge" any gov't attempt to spy through Kinect

So the whole "kinect can't be used for that don't be crazy" thing is looking pretty good right now....

Government: Let us connect to an xbox and spy through kinect
MS: No
Government: Come on
MS: Ok.
 

rothbart

Member
Aggressively challenge... LOL. But if they can't stop it, they won't. They're saying unless laws are changed making it legal. There are people out there trying to make oral sex between married people illegal so if they're trying to imply "stupid shit" won't be turned into laws or that "common sense" says laws won't be changed to make this legal as our protection, it's a pretty weak stance...

Microsoft just needs to realize that no matter what they can and do say, no matter what the current laws are... some people will be uncomfortable being forced to have Kinect connected in order to use their product... and some of those people will likely never purchase because of it. Make it optional before launch Microsoft. Sell it to people if you want to, but don't FORCE us to have it connected. We don't trust the possibilities of what you, law enforcement, the government, the NSA, hackers, and everybody else may be able to do... permission or not... lawful or not.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
MS PR at the moment:

1330973730_goalkeeper_scores_wondassisted_own_goal.gif
 
lmao...as if the suits care about the "law".. if they want that info, they're going to get that info regardless of what M$ says.

i'm more worried about M$ spying on me than the NSA.
 

LQX

Member
Fuck this shit. We, the people, hereby petition Microsoft to allow the government to spy on us.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
The law? I'm more worried about MS and them spying on me and passing it onto other corps. Kinect should be able to be unplugged to play the One.

That could be their whole plan. Nothing small like the DRM but being able to sell house hold data and feed you ads based on what they found will be a huge money maker if it works out for them. A camera that tracks data and sends it home to be compiled.
 

Omni

Member
You people are so melodramatic.

BRB gonna tape over my cellphone camera just in case the government wants to listen in to my pocket rumblings
 

Freki

Member
well what else would they say?

Nothing - stop lying and simply hope people forget.
This Pr bs basically is compelling people to bring up previous examples of Microsoft going out of their way to comply with demands and wishes from the government...
 

Gestault

Member
so why didn't they do this when the government was seeking data from their other stuff?

Possibly because the claim of PRISM is that it's like keeping a record of who contacted who (via various communication channels) rather than the actual content of any communications, in a system that allows the data to be processed anonymously during an investigation until there's a court order to actually view the content of that exchange.

I feel like data from the Kinect would inherently fall into that "content" category.

Or this will happen
Government: Let us connect to an xbox and spy through kinect
MS: No
Government: Come on
MS: Ok.

lol
 
It's more than the 9 companies involved in PRISM and it'll continue to grow and grow.

There is a 20 billion dollar class action law suit against these 9 companies to stop this from happening again. http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram...ght-against-complicit-companies-and-officials

Also I wish them good luck. Yet with the news that even Supreme Court Judges are getting bribed by the Government (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread956307/pg1) can we really count on this lawsuit to do any good?

Wonder what favors MS is capable of calling in with the NSA and deals with the other companies if they want to do something about Sony :)
 
Microsoft: Absent a new law, we don't believe the government has the legal authority to compel us or any other company that makes products with cameras and microphones to start collecting voice and video data. But of course, we still maintain the right to compel our users to have their Kinect plugged in for the Xbox One console to function.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Nothing - stop lying and simply hope people forget.
This Pr bs basically is compelling people to bring up previous examples of Microsoft going out of their way to comply with demands and wishes from the government...

yeah maybe, i'm almost getting second-hand embarrassment from them at this point. i kind of feel like there's nothing they can plausibly say or do that will make anything better for themselves in the short term, they might as well clam up.
 

waypoetic

Banned
Why the sudden comment? Rewind two months back when people were talking about this (pre-US spying on everyone newsstory), they didn't fucking comment on our fears then..

Oh, that's right, Microsoft only responds when the media is sniffing up their but - not when the fans of their products, the ones that's buying their shit, they don't listen or calm them down.
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
That could be their whole plan. Nothing small like the DRM but being able to sell house hold data and feed you ads based on what they found will be a huge money maker if it works out for them. A camera that tracks data and sends it home to be compiled.

Been saying this for a long time. The money is in the ads. That's how the XB1 will be profitable from day 1. MS just got super unlucky with the NSA information spill occurring right around E3. This is not their day year.
 

Proelite

Member
It takes more work for MS to cater to government needs. China's various regulations caused MS plenty of head aches in the past.

Just my two cents for anyone thinks that tech companies want to carry on extra burden when making their software.

You would think that making Kinect data available to the US government requires no man hours on the behalf of Microsoft, but it is usually never the case.
 
I don't trust a word MS or the government says. Both have records of flat out lying/lying by omission about this crap.

MS has got to make the Kinect optional for me to ever even consider buying an Xbox One. They seem adamant about not doing so and then giving no valid reason at all as to why it must be plugged in.
 
So the whole "kinect can't be used for that don't be crazy" thing is looking pretty good right now....

Government: Let us connect to an xbox and spy through kinect
MS: No
Government: Come on
MS: Ok.

On xbox launch day:
Government sends a picture of their abs taken with kinect
MS: No
Government : Cmon Bae :$
MS: Ok I give up I guess.
 
Is there anything stopping my current Kinect, PSEye, Galaxy, iPod, Laptop or Vita from spying on me?

There are differences in which company owns those devices and where they come from, but in theory yes they could be used.

One possible practical difference is that Kinect is designed with enhanced tracking and recognition features built in. For example you could imagine it being used to "record" when a certain person is in the room or appears to be performing an action of interest. Another difference is the xbox one is for all practical purposes "always online" so it is much more viable to expect to be able to connect to it. Phones of course have the same advantage, but connection speeds, especially in countries where this will be used would be impractical.

That is of course, quite out there and we all know how well kinect actually performs...but fundamentally the concern here is if the practice isn't stopped now, kinect v4 or similar products might just be a much larger issue.
 

PROOP

FREAKING OUT MAN
MS is the cheating spouse who promises to never do it again, but deep down the trust is broken and can never be repaired.

MS would have to one-up Snowden on info about PRISM for the public to completely regain trust in them.
 
I don't trust a word MS or the government says. Both have records of flat out lying/lying by omission about this crap.

MS has got to make the Kinect optional for me to ever even consider buying an Xbox One. They seem adamant about not doing so and then giving no valid reason at all as to why it must be plugged in.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if the government had a hand in forcing kinect to be required.
 
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