Microsoft Kinect Can Capture Data for Advertisers
Posted in: kinect, Microsoft, Today's Chili, video games
Before rushing out to buy a Kinect for Xbox 360 this holiday
season, here’s something to take into consideration: you’re effectively
bringing a camera into your living room. Of course, we’re not suggesting that
Microsoft (or anyone else for that matter) has any particularly malicious plans
for the thing–it’s really just something to think about.
What sort of thing could a company like Microsoft capture
with a device like the Kinect? Advertising data, for one. It’s something that the company has expressed
some interest in, in fact–the ability to capture certain data for potential
advertisers. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly personal about the
potential data captured.
Rather, it would boil users down to a set of number: how
often are they playing, how many people are playing at any given time, et al.
You know, the sorts of things advertisers are generally looking for in abstract
demographics.
As TG Daily puts it, “Obviously no third-party would be able
to say, ‘I want to remotely tap into that random Kinect camera.’ At least, we’d
hope not.”
It’s a scary prospect, certainly–and it does get one started
on all manner of slippery slope-type worries. After all, by opening a camera in
one’s living room to third parties, one is, perhaps, opening up a can of
wriggling privacy concerns.
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