Microsoft Plays 'Big Brother' With Xbox Live

Steve from Hexus writes "HEXUS.gaming reports that Microsoft's XBox LIVE on the XBox 360 is giving away far more information than is necessary. From the article: 'When we first realised the extent and detail of information that was being shared with other Xbox Live users, we did a bit of investigating. With the boss on the other end of the phone, I skipped about through my Xbox 360's functions, each time challenging the boss to tell me what I was doing. Using Media Connect, he told me just a few seconds after I had started that I was viewing pictures... then playing music... then on the Xbox 360 Dashboard and then that I was in Xbox Live Marketplace looking for something to download. The sad thing is, he was right every time!' This information isn't confined to people on your friends list either."

Comments

Yawn

[generic-man]

BBSes did this more than 10 years ago and UNIX's "w" command does something very similar.

User         Doing           Logged in
generic-man  Playing LORD    15 mins ago
d00d         Reading mail    20 mins ago
amigarox     Chat            30 mins ago

As a former SysOp, I don't know what the big deal is here.

Re:So?

[HTH NE1]

Why is it a problem that other users can see what you do on Live?

It's a problem when those other users are in your locality, looking for the right time to break into your home while you're distracted, maybe to inflict some non-virtual fragging on your camping ass.

Or if the company you work for decides playing violent video games violates some morals clause, finds out your Live ID, and decides to fire you for playing Quake 4 at home.*

* Companies are firing people for smoking at home (and failing a drug test for tobacco); with all the hype about violent games making people violent, there is a change to make such a policy stick under the guise of maintaining workplace safety.