Microsoft Kinect may be eavesdropping on you

Released only five days ago, Microsoft’s Kinect seems poised to start a revolution in gaming. And if you are one of the lucky people who already managed to get their hands on it, you might want to know that a specific setting regarding the device’s microphone could allow other players to overhear your private conversations.

The fact was discovered by editorial director Eric Eckstein of G4 while he was testing the device and playing an online first-person shooter game, during which he was able to overhear a teammate’s conversation with his wife who was in the room at the time.

How did that happen? When the teammate was setting up Kinect for the first time, he apparently chose to use the device for chatting, which made “on” the default setting for its microphone. So, during a multiplayer game, when the microphone substitutes the previously usually used headset – it picks up audio from the entire room and not only the user.