Xbox Live terms will ask users to share data with partners

Microsoft has announced its new terms of use policy forcing users to agree to let Microsoft share your personal data with the company’s partners. Don’t worry though, it’s committed to keeping your account secure – when did that ever go wrong for a gaming company?

Microsoft wants users to be responsible for account data in the interest of account security, the new terms of use reads:

“Now asks all users to commit to keeping their contact information up to date. Protecting your account from unauthorised access and fraud is a top priority for us. It helps keep Xbox Live safer and more secure for everyone.”

Protecting yourself from unauthorised access is already a given; the next part of the terms of use covers the information Microsoft will share with partnering services such as Netflix:

“If you choose to link this account with your Xbox Live account, we confirm key data points across the accounts by sharing data such as your name, address, email address and date of birth with the partner.”

If you plan on using Netflix or any other service, Microsoft and the partnering company will check your information matches up. To sign up for one of these services your most likely going to be giving it the same personal information that you used to sign up for Xbox Live. For those who do worry about their information, Microsoft’s privacy statement says you can opt out of data sharing although we don’t know how long it will stay that way.

KitGuru Says: As long as it’s just the same basic signing up information you would use for any service being shared and we don’t start getting spam mail to sign up for services we don’t want, this isn’t much of a problem. For the data conscious- remember you can opt out of it,  just sit back and enjoy your Xbox. 

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