The concept of the instant-on feature of Kinect that recognizes you after you wave at it is not an always-on type of spy camera. Some have expressed fears about the Kinect camera being always-on and connected to the Internet; but actually these fears appear to be groundless.

Despite what Kinect users might think, the camera is activated by an infrared pickup that detects movement, so it isn’t always looking or searching for an image. It only activates when sufficient movement occurs to turn it on; and images cannot be broadcast over the Internet without a user’s permission. Currently, only the video chat application supports the sending of video to another user, at least according to our understanding.

Don’t look for Microsoft to create some sort of creepy spy program for Kinect; despite all of the science fiction stories that you may have read about, this just isn’t something that is on their agenda.