Note to all ALC215 readers, this is work for another unit, by all means comment, but you won't be able to submit it.
The recent release of Microsoft’s new Xbox One (the successor to the Xbox 360) has thrown up a couple of intriguing elements of electronic tracking and surveillance. Firstly there is an issue of activity and use tracking through a compulsory Internet tether for a daily check in, (which has now been scaled back), but primarily the controversy centres around the console's Kinect motion capture camera. As part of the Xbox One's perpetual standby mode, Kinect is always active, and picks up any movement, voice or hand movements, and beams footage back to Microsoft's central servers.
This is disturbing enough in and of itself, however when coupled with allegations made by American hacker Edward Snowden that all Microsoft products are equipped with a 'backdoor' which grants access to America's National Security Agency. This, you could argue is similar to the communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which as Gates and Magnet (2007, p.281) explain as being an act that 'requires telecommunication carriers to design their equipment, facilities, and services to enable electronic surveillance'. One could argue that this is no different to allegations made by Snowden, and that NSA access is just another part of the modern surveillance society, however CALEA is written into law, and freely available to anyone to view, while the NSA's PRISM operation (detailed below) was run in complete secret, without the knowledge of the general public.
Snowden paints a picture of an extremely effectively and sophisticated surveillance scheme, which can monitor every facet of everyday life, and while Xbox One's Kinect camera is only a small facet of this, having an omnipresent video recording capability built in to what is essentially a children's gaming device is something that many would view as a trivial and invasive perversion of their civil rights, especially considering at the time of release facts about where footage might end up and what it might be used for had not revealed.
It should be noted here that there has been no confirmation that any Kinect camera footage has been or is being monitored as part of the PRISM program, however the possibilities of such a system are pretty much endless. Furthermore, much has been made in the past about the 'threat' of surveillance, chiefly through the analysis of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a concept of self-regulation, predicated on the idea someone 'could be' watching. The Panopticon was furthered by French sociologist Michel Foucault, who analyzed it as a way 'to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in it's effects' (Foucault, 1977, p.201). This sentiment has now become very relevant again with Snowden's revelations that the American government has the potential capabilities to monitor a person's every single movement and connection. Does the concept of the Panopticon still ring true today, even if the medium has changed from a prison guard to a computer technician? Will the mental image of a dark room somewhere with hundreds of television monitors have any influence whatsoever on the human condition?
References
Foucault, M, 1977, 'Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison'. A. Sheridan, (Trans), Penguin, London, p.201.
Gates, K, & Magnet, S 2007, 'Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance', Communication Review, 10, 4, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 August 2013. p.281.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5yB3n9fu-rM
Snowden paints a picture of an extremely effectively and sophisticated surveillance scheme, which can monitor every facet of everyday life, and while Xbox One's Kinect camera is only a small facet of this, having an omnipresent video recording capability built in to what is essentially a children's gaming device is something that many would view as a trivial and invasive perversion of their civil rights, especially considering at the time of release facts about where footage might end up and what it might be used for had not revealed.
It should be noted here that there has been no confirmation that any Kinect camera footage has been or is being monitored as part of the PRISM program, however the possibilities of such a system are pretty much endless. Furthermore, much has been made in the past about the 'threat' of surveillance, chiefly through the analysis of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a concept of self-regulation, predicated on the idea someone 'could be' watching. The Panopticon was furthered by French sociologist Michel Foucault, who analyzed it as a way 'to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in it's effects' (Foucault, 1977, p.201). This sentiment has now become very relevant again with Snowden's revelations that the American government has the potential capabilities to monitor a person's every single movement and connection. Does the concept of the Panopticon still ring true today, even if the medium has changed from a prison guard to a computer technician? Will the mental image of a dark room somewhere with hundreds of television monitors have any influence whatsoever on the human condition?
References
Foucault, M, 1977, 'Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison'. A. Sheridan, (Trans), Penguin, London, p.201.
Gates, K, & Magnet, S 2007, 'Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance', Communication Review, 10, 4, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 August 2013. p.281.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5yB3n9fu-rM
Pazarino, M, 2013, 'Microsoft reverses course on Internet connection and used game policies of Xbox One', retrieved August 7, 2013, http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/06/19/microsoft-apparently-reverses-course-on-xbox-one-always-on-internet-connection-and-used-game-policies/
RT, 2013, 'Microsoft helped the NSA bypass encryption, new Snowden leak reveals' retrieved August 7, 2013, http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/
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