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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

2012 Microsoft Is Turning Xbox Live Into a Political Battleground

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 11:20 AM

Ben Kuchera at Penny Arcade has a great story about how Microsoft is using your information to sell political content:

“To understand more about the political attitudes, behaviors and issue priorities of Xbox LIVE members, Xbox commissioned StrategyOne to conduct a survey of 1,678 Xbox LIVE households,” Microsoft said in a press release. “The survey, which was conducted June 19 to July 3, 2012, found that 40% are swing voters: Those who are not firmly committed to a presidential candidate.”

Let’s take a step back here, and realize that Microsoft is sharing your information with polling organizations so you can be invited to take part in surveys. “The survey was conducted June 19 through July 3, 2012 and included 324 landline, 684 cellphone and 670 online interviews,” the statement explained. So if you’ve received a landline or cell phone call asking for your political views, there’s a chance they’re using the information from your Xbox Live account, and it was directly provided to the company by Microsoft.

That information was then collected into a branded data set about voters and used to promote Xbox Live and push Microsoft-curated political news to users who are given no way to opt out. This is a very troubling area for a platform that is sold as pure entertainment.

I'm not surprised this is happening, but I'm concerned about how Microsoft is selecting and editing this content. There's no transparency, and there's no accountability. Kuchera points out that Xbox content is for sale. Is this another arena where super PACs will dominate? Seems likely, doesn't it?

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As an xbox live user, I can tell you that the majority of players are against fags, queers, homos, your mother, your sister, niggers, spics, mexicans, aussies, euros, canadians ....

Posted by benjammin509 on August 29, 2012 at 11:36 AM

I'm a Live user too but as with most online stuff I lie outright about most demographic info...name, address, age, birthdays, anything like that.

MS being generally a scummy company doesn't help...they recently made arbitration binding, and make it difficult-to-impossible to cancel online.

The service itself is pretty solid though.

Posted by ryanmm on August 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM

@1

Don't forget Jews! They hey them, too. In fact, I'm surprised the political parties most interested in demographic data on XBox Live users aren't all white supremacist movements or Christian fundamentalists.

Posted by Zebes

on August 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM

@3 I can't believe I forgot Jews! The majority of live users are most definitely antisemitic.

Posted by benjammin509 on August 29, 2012 at 12:24 PM

While I don't like politics on my Xbox Live dashboard, I don't think Microsoft is bringing politics into Live for political reasons. I think it's just a natural progression of Live becoming an entertainment hub. And politics today, sadly, is entertainment. Live now can host a myriad of apps that show you movies, tv shows - so why not bring in politics? They're doing everything to keep the eyeballs glued and keep the benjamins coming too.

Posted by XBox: Have you been called a faggot today? on August 29, 2012 at 1:08 PM

@4 women too! (AKA: bitches/sluts)

So the real question is how are 40% of them undecided? They sound like the perfect conservatives.

Posted by Pick1 on August 29, 2012 at 1:12 PM

@6, well most have never been laid so their opinion of women isn't shocking

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on August 29, 2012 at 2:40 PM

Most ads on my Facebook are republican candidates. I flag each one as offensive.

Posted by ScienceNerd on August 29, 2012 at 4:00 PM

I would think that 40% of them are "undecided" because they're waiting to attain legal voting age before deciding who they'd vote for.

Posted by urn on August 29, 2012 at 4:16 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this basically say Microsoft polled a bunch of people who use xbox live and asked what their political views were? I don't get the "Microsoft is reading your political views from your live account and giving it to everyone" line.

Posted by prompt on August 29, 2012 at 5:43 PM

D0uch3t4rd5000 don't take part in no stinkin' polls...

Posted by Cynic Romantic on August 29, 2012 at 8:58 PM

Thanks MS, for jacking up the cost of XBox Live and then selling your own subscription base to advertisers. If I needed more of that, I'd go back to Bank of America.

Posted by Knat on August 29, 2012 at 9:43 PM