The Xbox One's Kinect has set a few alarm bells ringing in light of the whole NSA Prism debacle, but Microsoft has assured people that there won't be any secret spying taking place.
Or, at least, it's promising to stand up and put up the good fight. The company says it will "aggressively" challenge any attempts by the NSA to make it use its Kinect sensor to spy on the public.
Microsoft wrote a blog post addressing privacy concerns around Kinect, telling us that the sensor will only listen for a single voice command when powered down, while we can pause the device during gameplay.
The spy who watched me
"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," said Microsoft in a statement on the possibility of the NSA using Kinect to spy in the US.
It added: "We'd aggressively challenge in court any attempts to try and force us to do so."
Nonetheless, Microsoft's always-on motion toy promises to worry a few, despite Microsoft promising that it won't be using Kinect to snoop on anyone for its own means.
Earlier this month it was claimed that Microsoft had let US authorities access users' private communications, including emails and Skype conversations.
Redmond probably has some way to go to convince us that we'll be safe from prying eyes when the One rolls around.
Via The Verge
