[raluca]

Kinect could be watching you more than you want, in the future. Dennis Durkin, COO and CFO of Microsoft’s Xbox, told investors that there are business opportunities with Kinect for advertising and marketing. Information about what are you playing, with whom, could be used for targeted advertising and marketing. Stay tuned to read what Dennis Durkin said and Microsoft’s statement on this subject!


Kinect for advertising and marketing
Only one week after the launch of Kinect in USA and one day after the launch in Europe, Dennis Durkin told the investors that Kinect can be used for advertising and marketing.
We can cater which content we present to you based on who you are.

How many people are in the room when an ad is shown? How many people are in the room when a game is being played? When you add this sort of device to a living room, there’s a bunch of business opportunities that come with that.
- Dennis Durkin, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft’s Xbox

Microsoft has made a statement later on its current privacy policies:
Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE do not use any information captured by Kinect for advertising targeting purposes. Microsoft has a strong track record of implementing some of the best privacy protection measures in the industry. We place great importance on the privacy of our customers’ information and the safety of their experiences.
Now, of course Microsoft would probably not recognize even if they were looking into using Kinect for advertising and marketing because of the privacy concerns. Who can blame them?

But, what do you think? Will Kinect become the next Big Brother for advertising and marketing? Do you really want to be offered similar Kinect games to the ones you like at the cost of your privacy?

Not concerned about Kinect's potential privacy issues ? Then you should check pricing and availability of Kinect in your home country here.
Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Article: Kinect for advertising and marketing

[UndgnfiedWrshpr]

Interesting. I don't know how I feel about it. I like the idea as long as it doesn't go beyond that.

[TheZeeMan]

I actually don't feel comfortable with it. I unplug kinect when I'm not using it...I'm sure they can remotely power on our xbox's if they wanted to. And I'm almost certain they won't be using it for advertising, more like governments are going to propose contracts to Microsoft stating something along the lines, listen for keywords "bomb, terrorist, etc" but that's my own conspiracy theory LOL

[UndgnfiedWrshpr]

Really? I guess I'm to trusting, or you're crazy. One of the two.

[TheZeeMan]

LOL Well I don't like being watched especially if I know about it. Even if I am just watching a movie or something, why do I need to let people whom I don't even know check everything out and listen to our conversations. It's just way too much of an invasion to me.

[fervor]

What?

The statements by the COO and the update by Microsoft contradict each other.