German Official Expresses Xbox One Privacy Concerns

[Strazdas]

WRONG. That may be how nearly any other law system works, but it's nigh impossible to pull off in Germany. People are pretty stubborn, follow rules for the most part, and expect VERY high sums when anybody tries to bribe them. In eastern Europe, this works. In Russia, too.
Add to that that the EU and German courts dislike Microsoft anyway, and you'll see why that won't happen.

Last I heard, the EU wanted to ban this kind of region locking.

Sounds likely. But the thing runs Windows NT 6, so we'll likely not have a problem removing the Kinect requirement through either a registry or activation system hack.

YOu claim that corruption is impossible in Germany. This sounds something from a science-fiction novel than reality. This is a capitalist world. The only question is how much.
What EU wanted and what EU manages to pulloff is different things. EU wanted tax harmonization that would benefit everyone. They couldnt find two countries to agree on that. Stupid politics is stupid.
Hacking is possible, yes, but thats not exactly legal so we may see the PS3 Italy case all over again.

Capcha: Million dollars
no, capcha, i think it will take a bit more.

 

[Xarathox]

Why is it that the United States still can't get it's thick skull around privacy protection?

I don't know, but I wish to the Gods there was some way I could be adopted by a German family so I could get the fuck out of this country.

 

[Colt47]

Why is it that the United States still can't get it's thick skull around privacy protection?

I don't know, but I wish to the Gods there was some way I could be adopted by a German family so I could get the fuck out of this country.

Yeah, I don't really like living in the USA either these days. The country needs some serious overhauls to it's legislation that just aren't going to happen thanks to the government being completely deadlocked all the time.

 

[Strazdas]

YOu claim that corruption is impossible in Germany.

Not impossible. Just much less likely to happen.

http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results

In 2012, Germany was ranked 13th in the world for least corrupt government. America was ranked 19th. Meaning its easier to bribe a government official in the U.S. than it is in Germany.

The least corruptible governments: Finland, Denmark, New Zealand
The most corruptible governments: Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea

Meaning the amount is higher. Does microsoft not have money?

 

[Strazdas]

Meaning the amount is higher. Does microsoft not have money?

Of course they do. According to their Mar 30, 2013 Quarterly Balance Sheet, they're sitting on $5,240,000,000 in Cash and Cash Equivalents. Comparatively, Wal-Mart had $7,781,000,000 Cash and Equivalents as of Jan 30, 2013. Yet we don't see Wal-Mart operating in Germany.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=wmt

The whole point is rather moot though. Microsoft had already announced that the Kinect can be "turned off completely". Probably not while the system is running, but they've given "assurances" that it won't be spying on people 24/7. The announcement did seem to be in direct reply to the above mentioned German official.

We dont see walmart operating in many places where there are no need for bribes either. They dont need to. MS on the other hand needs wide audience to pay this bet that is Xbone.
Yes, indeed MS confirmed what we all knew already - it can be turned off when Xbone is not being used.

 

[unstabLized]

I swear to God if one more person tells me "We'll talk about this later" or "We'll share more details on this later", I'll throw them off a building. AIOSJDAIOSJDOASIJOAIJ!!!! Sorry. *pants*