It’s a double-edge sword.  With the rapid changes in technology, as we’ve mentioned before, privacy is probably taking the biggest hit.  The upcoming Xbox may be taking things a bit too far.

It contains a technology called Kinect which has been described by Forbes as being so sensitive it can detect a person’s heartbeat.  Voice commands allow navigation of different screens across many media sources simultaneously and that’s pretty cool.  You can finally ditch the remote!  But given that a voice command wakes it up, it has to be in an “always on” mode.  In other words, it’s listening at all times.  Which leads us to question what “standby” means for its motion-tracking camera.

To go a step further, the Xbox continuously records the information it receives which means data about you is able to be warehoused, and ultimately sold to other companies.  Already the Xbox is defined in Australia as a surveillance device and in Germany has been called a monitoring device under the guise of a gaming console.

Now something like this is a boon for advertising since the data bank accessible will be that much richer and targeted ads that much more accurate.  So that’s good for businesses that adapt to it.  On the other hand, the secondary effects of this technology and the ones to follow might be something of which you’d like to be aware.  Imagine having this Xbox in your break room where staff might be discussing confidential info about an upcoming bid or proposal?

Computer Wrangler can be your guide through the emerging technology jungle and help protect your business.  We do it every day.

Happy computing!