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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."
Didn't RTFA yet, but Xbox Live lets you appear offline, so what's the problem here?
"This is considered plagiarism."
hal2814
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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.
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found at the end of the article ... make what you want of it ... seems like a non-issue.
With thanks to the several e-mails, in particular the one out of a dozen that didn't just hurl abuse, we'd like to point out that there IS is way to adjust these privacy settings between everyone, friends only or no-one at all.
The options to change the privacy settings can be accessedby selecting your gamer profile whilst in the Xbox LIVE blade and then editing your profile. Whilst this provides the degree of privacy many users may well want, it is the opinion of the Team HEXUS that these options should be an 'opt-in' option not an 'opt-out'.
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.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
First off, if anyone bothered to actually read the whole article you would see that they updated the article when they realised that they can set their privacy settings to now tell anyone what they are doing on their xbox, or to just tell people on their friends list. So if you are concerned about this, just turn it off.
Secondly, who really cares if people know that you are watching a movie, or looking at pictures. For one thing, you do not even know if the user is actually at the system, of if the xbox is just idling. And do you actually care if people know you are watching a movie? Its not like its announcing to the world that you are watching the latest chick flick, or flipping though your porn collection. It just says watching a movie, or viewing pictures. Its like your neighbors seeing you leave the house. Oh my god!, they know I'm leaving the house -- my privacy!!