The Xbox One (successor to 360) Will Always Be Listening To You Even When Off

[DamianTV]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4352596/the-xbox-one-is-always-listening

In its hour-long Xbox One presentation, Microsoft blazed through announcements for its new next-generation console, including one ostensibly important feature that may raise some eyebrows: the new Xbox will always be listening to you, even when it's turned off.

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(article continues on link)

Not everyone here is a Gamer, so not everyone knows this next bit. The XBox One (apparently the successor to the XBox 360, M$ announced today) already requires an ALWAYS ON INTERNET CONNECTION. You can NOT play even so much as have the damn thing turned on without it being connected to the Internet. So then they put in a camera and a microphone in it. So either M$ or someone else with the knowhow can remotely listen in and watch what ever you are doing in your own house. They dont need Warrants. They dont need to let you know.

This IS the Camera in your Living Room warned of by George Orwell.

1984 is here, now, today.

Now give us a shitload of money so we can watch you, at your own expense. What? You actually expected us to pay to put those cameras in your house? No! If you buy your own surveillance equipment to be used against you, you'd trash it, unless you actually bought it.

Say NO to the Next XBox.

 

[WhistlinDave]

Did you see the "Update" at the bottom? SO reassuring... Because nobody can ever compromise security measures in computer networks.

Just a thought... Couldn't you just unplug it when not in use? (Or have it plugged into a power strip that you simply switch off?) Still a bit unsettling, but seems to me it's not insurmountable. Kill the power when it's not in use.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

Did you see the "Update" at the bottom? SO reassuring... Because nobody can ever compromise security measures in computer networks.

Just a thought... Couldn't you just unplug it when not in use? (Or have it plugged into a power strip that you simply switch off?) Still a bit unsettling, but seems to me it's not insurmountable. Kill the power when it's not in use.

.. or mod it with a toggle switch for the camera and mic.

 

[wormyguy]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

 

[squarepusher]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

most likely, this

 

[leverguy]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

And everybody knows that they don't track you through your cellphone, right? Not even Apple would pull something like logging your location, except when they do. But then you don't have anything to hide do you citizen? Do you?

And Microsoft never cooperates with the .gov do they? If the spooks can get to it, they will insist on using it.

The anonymity thing doesn't really cut it in the surveillance state.

 

[Ranger29860]

There is a difference from being off and being in sleep mode. They made a real big deal about the system being low power usage. To me that signals in conjunction with the cable box functionality to mean that the system can sit in standby mode and can be woken up on voice command as shown in the presentation when you want. But you can still turn it off. They just don't want you to since part of its feature set is reliant on voice commands.

Easy fix. Instal and activate the game then unplug it from the internet.

 

[NationalAnarchist]

Don't own any game consoles now have no intentions of buying any.

 

[TheTexan]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

Microsoft doesn't care about me, but it does care about $.

The FedGov would be willing to offer them a lot of money to install a backdoor to listen on people. And if the FedGov did give them money to do that, you wouldn't know it.

This is what I call "the Facebook model"

 

[Natural Citizen]

This is another great opportunity to ask our prospective representatives what their position is on technology. I have very little faith in reckless consumers to do that though. This crap wouldn't be happening if Reagan didn't open up the flood gates for these corporations to lobby and solicit representation to market youth. Now those youth are adults and care not what they ...demand.

 

[Spikender]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

This was a really ignorant thing to say. You should be concerned about your own privacy, and this is a potential breach in it if you choose to purchase one.

Now excuse me, I have to get a towel and wipe the Cheeto dust off of my keyboard.

 

[Cutlerzzz]

This system is going to bomb.

No buying used games, no selling your used games, no renting games, no borrowing games, always online, likely $500+ dollars, no backwards compatibility, needs kinect on in order to work.

I'll go with a gaming PC and a Wii U. Hopefully when this system bombs Halo will be available on the PC and Banjo Kazooie will be available on the Wii U.

 

[wormyguy]

If the government wanted to install super-secret undetectable nanocams that constantly stream video over the internet without anyone, least of all your ISP, knowing about it, then they'd probably install them in something like wireless routers, which are far more commonplace than xboxes and also always connected to the internet, or cellphones, which are generally always kept on one's person and also always connected to the internet. They would not use xboxes, which are a niche product that competes among several, and which are mostly used by rather mundane individuals for rather mundane purposes.

 

[John F Kennedy III]

If the government wanted to install super-secret undetectable nanocams that constantly stream video over the internet without anyone, least of all your ISP, knowing about it, then they'd probably install them in something like wireless routers, which are far more commonplace than xboxes and also always connected to the internet, or cellphones, which are generally always kept on one's person and also always connected to the internet. They would not use xboxes, which are a niche product that competes among several, and which are mostly used by rather mundane individuals for rather mundane purposes.

Why would they not use XBoxes?

 

[TheTexan]

They would not use xboxes, which are a niche product that competes among several, and which are mostly used by rather mundane individuals for rather mundane purposes.

I saw a documentary about terrorists once I believe it was called 24, and I clearly remember a scene where there were terrorists playing xbox

 

[DamianTV]

Why would they not use XBoxes?

New XBox has a Camera getting a good shot of your living room / bedroom (where ever you keep it) and a Mic. Routers have neither.

To give the Govt a tool then expect them not to use it is absolutely foolish. Of course, there are still so many fucking morons out there that think they have absolutely nothing to hide and would probably have no problem what so ever with the govt kicking in everyones front door and demanding for the 24/7 camera they put on you. At this point, I honestly can not believe that yet again I hear "I've got nothing to hide" argument.

The determination between Right and Wrong is ALWAYS subjective. I'm not gonna bother to repeat myself at this point because I've started too many other threads on the same topic and end it with the same arguments. If you drink Coke, you are the ENEMY of Pepsi. That is the difference between Right and Wrong, and having nothing to hide.

 

[ClydeCoulter]

New XBox has a Camera getting a good shot of your living room / bedroom (where ever you keep it) and a Mic. Routers have neither.

To give the Govt a tool then expect them not to use it is absolutely foolish. Of course, there are still so many fucking morons out there that think they have absolutely nothing to hide and would probably have no problem what so ever with the govt kicking in everyones front door and demanding for the 24/7 camera they put on you. At this point, I honestly can not believe that yet again I hear "I've got nothing to hide" argument.

The determination between Right and Wrong is ALWAYS subjective. I'm not gonna bother to repeat myself at this point because I've started too many other threads on the same topic and end it with the same arguments. If you drink Coke, you are the ENEMY of Pepsi. That is the difference between Right and Wrong, and having nothing to hide.

The OLD Xbox has a camera and mic, if you have connect, which we do. It's a blast to play. Sports games can actually make you break a sweat. It's really cool tech.

But alas, we have assholes in the world so, say no to cool toys, damn.

 

[Cowlesy]

I walk around all day with an iPhone, Blackberry and/or iPad that all have cellular chips, wifi capability and multiple cameras which, I assume, someone somewhere can turn on/off at any time. Same with my iMac. I can't get in too much of a tizzy that now a game-console will also have voice/video capabilities.

 

[jmdrake]

OMG MY WIRELESS ROUTER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY CELLPHONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

OMG MY INTERNET IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Believe me, Microsoft really does not care about you. Do you think they have some underground cave where millions of workers use the super-secret undetectable nanocams to watch chubby young men give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome, eat Cheetos and masturbate?

Sure. Microsoft doesn't care about you. They're just out to make money like ATT. The NSA cares though. The NSA talked ATT and other service providers into letting them install equipment to capture all electronic communications traffic. Do you think they're above leaning on Microsoft to do something similar?

 

[DamianTV]

The OLD Xbox has a camera and mic, if you have connect, which we do. It's a blast to play. Sports games can actually make you break a sweat. It's really cool tech.

But alas, we have assholes in the world so, say no to cool toys, damn.

True

I dont want to be the one who tells people what choices to make for themselves. Im personally not interested in that tech, but will not only not bash on anyone for making informed choices, but will stand up and defend their Right to make the decision that I dont agree with. I believe that is much more important.

The only thing I really try to do is warn people by trying to make them think about how the lack of privacy can be abused and whom the abusers are. Too many people just dont think, period. Hence all the counter arguments of "Why do you care if we are remotely monitoring you having sex? If you are only having sex with your spouse legally, then what do you have to hide?" and other various counter points...