Xbox One Kinect: Camera Won't Be Used for Targeted Advertising

By Justin Sarachik, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Microsoft announced that the Xbox One's Kinect will not be used as a future targeted advertising device.

"We are trying to bridge some of the world between online and offline. That's a little bit of a holy grail in terms of how you understand the consumer in that 360 degrees of their life," Microsoft marketing executive Yusuf Mehdi initially said at a advertising conference causing confusion. "We have a pretty unique position at Microsoft because of what we do with digital, as well as more and more with television because of Xbox. It's early days, but we're starting to put that together in more of a unifying way, and hopefully at some point we can start to offer that to advertisers broadly."

Albert Penello, director of product planning for Microsoft, told Eurogamer there was no need to believe Kinect's ability to read expressions and behaviors would result in this targeted advertising.

"First – nobody is working on that. We have a lot more interesting and pressing things to dedicate time towards," he said to the site. "Second – if something like that ever happened, you can be sure it wouldn't happen without the user having control over it. Period."

According to Techland, Microsoft then released a statement that claimed Mehdi's comments were meant for the SmartGlass, not the Xbox One.

The company then issued another statement, "We do not have plans to target ads or content to you based on any data Kinect collects. We have a long-standing commitment to your privacy and will not target ads to you based on any data Kinect collects unless you choose to allow us to do so."

The Kinect will be a mandatory part of the Xbox One.

"Xbox One is Kinect. They are not separate systems. An Xbox One has chips, it has memory, it has Blu-ray, it has Kinect, it has a controller. These are all part of the platform ecosystem," Phil Harrison, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said to CVG.

The Kinect is also the reason why the Xbox One is $100 more than its competition the PS4. It's sort of like two consoles in one that need each other.

"I have an Xbox One at home, and being able to walk in and say 'Xbox on,' and for the system to recognize me, launch and load my profile, and put my choices of content on the font page is a very magical experience," he said. "It makes you think about your relationship with technology in a slightly different way. It's personal. It makes you think, I wish more devices would do this."

Xbox One launches on Nov. 22.