Ed Krayewski on Liberty, Privacy and the Xbox One at the Libertarian Republic
I've got a column at the Libertarian Republic on some of the privacy and intellectual property issues with the roll out of the eighth generation of video game consoles. An excerpt:
A patent application Microsoft filed last year to use cameras to confirm users had paid for content, coupled with allegations Microsoft allowed the video-chat service Skype to be used for government spying made Microsoft's vision for the Kinect's role in the Xbox One hard for gamers to see the same way even before the avalanche of revelations about the NSA's internet data collection programs and Microsoft's participation in those (it was, for example, reportedly the first participant in the PRISM program). Those disclosures eventually forced Microsoft's position. Earlier this month, the company announced the Kinect would not be required for the Xbox One to be functional. That was, amazingly, not the first time Microsoft changed its plans to quell consumer concerns about the Xbox One.
