Snowden leak claims spy agencies 'have targeted Xbox Live'
One document, written by an NSA analyst to his superiors in 2008 and published on Monday, is titled 'Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments'.
The briefing called for government intelligence agencies to start collecting gamers' chat logs, and also suggested deploying real-life agents into virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life. These game communities were described as a "target-rich communications network" where targets could "hide in plain sight".
Infiltrating online gaming communities apparently became such a common practice among agencies including the NSA, its UK sister agency GCHQ, the FBI and CIA, that it was necessary to put in place measures to ensure these groups weren't inadvertently infringing on each other's work.
The report claims that, by September 2008, the agencies had built "mass-collection capabilities" against Xbox Live, including GCHQ succeeding in accessing discussions between different users of Microsoft's service, which has over 48 million account holders.
It also alleges that GCHQ and the NSA extracted World of Warcraft metadata in a bid to link "accounts, characters and guilds" to Islamic extremism and arms dealing efforts.
It is unclear whether the tranche of data leaked by Snowden shows that such surveillance had ever foiled any terrorism plots. Nor is it clear whether spy agencies had evidence suggesting terrorist organisations were using online gaming networks to communicate.
While it's unclear how the data was used, or how many communications were collected, the operations raise serious concerns about the privacy of gamers online.
While the NSA declined to comment on the reports revelations, a spokesperson for GCHQ said the agency did not "confirm or deny" them, but added: "All GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that its activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Intelligence and Security Committee."
A Blizzard spokesperson said: "We are unaware of any surveillance taking place. If it was, it would have been done without our knowledge or permission."
Microsoft, which was revealed to have provided Skype data to the NSA in the past, did not respond to requests for comment.
Recently, a senior Microsoft executive downplayed speculation that Kinect could be used as an advertising platform, where a user's emotional state and response could be captured and sent to the advertiser, or as a device that captures video information without permission.
Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum
Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/441901/spy-agencies-have-targeted-xbox-live-and-world-of-warcraft-report-claims/
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Comments
MeteredPosted:
I honestly don't care, I'm not a terrorist I don't think, so Microsoft can take all the info they want.
SkamaPosted:
Caszech I've never connected my Kinect, and probably never will.
Besides the "spying" you really are missing out on an amazing experience. Kinect makes the Xbox One next Gen. You can literally do anything besides playing a game or browsing the internet without touching the controller.
SkamaPosted:
Hope there watching me. I do some boring things in my room. And other "stuff"...
Have fun watching me play fetch with my kitten....
Have fun watching me play fetch with my kitten....
Martin_Luther_PingPosted:
Oh no! Now everyone will be up in arms thinking the government is watching them play videogames.
And do they really expect to find potential terrorist threats on Xbox Live? Do the Taliban discuss terrorist plots while playing Zoo Tycoon?
And do they really expect to find potential terrorist threats on Xbox Live? Do the Taliban discuss terrorist plots while playing Zoo Tycoon?
Jayden-Posted:
I know this is going to ring alarm bells for a lot of people, as a lot of people are very anti-big brother, anti-spying, etc.
But the truth of the matter is, if it's going to help the security of your country, than you should be all for it. Nobody here should have anything to hide anyway, so what does it matter?
Nobody is exploiting you really, they aren't interested in a bunch of blokes talking about which gun is better.
But the truth of the matter is, if it's going to help the security of your country, than you should be all for it. Nobody here should have anything to hide anyway, so what does it matter?
Nobody is exploiting you really, they aren't interested in a bunch of blokes talking about which gun is better.
KatsumiPosted:
even though i find this a little weird i'm not going to really worry about it. As long as i have nothing to hide and it doesn't really effect me i have no problem with it
MavericksPosted:
I honestly can't believe that our government is actually trying to do this. It's so unnecessary, and they make Microsoft look bad on top of it.
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