You've probably heard about how the British surveillance agency, GCHQ, [url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo]intercepted millions of Yahoo webcam images,[/url] probably in an attempt to figure out who asks [url=http://www.oddee.com/_media/imgs/articles2/a96964_y1.jpg]questions like these[/url] (other than bored trolls).
As it turns out, they also [url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/28/5456358/report-british-intelligence-agency-considered-spying-in-homes-with]evaluated the usefulness of Kinect as a surveillance tool[/url] as part of the Optic Nerve program but did not implement it. The GCHQ found that Kinect generated "fairly normal webcam traffic" consistent with their efforts, but it's possible that Kinect didn't make the cut due to relatively low volume or low efficiency.
For their part, [url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/28/microsoft-concerned-over-kinect-spying-claims]Microsoft obviously stated they were not aware of the evaluation and are looking into the matter.[/url]
The cynics among us would roll their eyes at the mention of new revelations of government surveillance, since we've [i]always[/i] known the government was monitoring our every move. Still, new information about webcam surviellance and unprecedented collection of metadata should perhaps make us a little wary of the many tools at agencies' disposal.
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It doesn't surprise me, no matter how illegal anything is they always seem to be watching us, waiting for us to make a poor move or say something bad and get swept up in a van and forgotten about. Hypocritical cunts. Know what would be better than "watching" what your people are doing or not doing, being a better government and not having to worry about people uprising and throwing you to the wayside.