Teardown of Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox One
Teardown of Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox One
Categories

iFixit teardown finds lots of sensors, but no NSA spying, built into Xbox One’s Kinect

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

Xbox One hit the stores last night, and iFixit has done a teardown of the innards of what it calls “America’s favorite surveillance system — the second-generation Kinect,” the motion-sensing and voice-recognizing camera for the Microsoft’s video game console.

And the repair service happily reports, “Good news, tin-hat wearers: The Kinect does not have any National Security Agency-grade hardware inside.” That’s a tongue-in-cheek joke about fears that Microsoft had created an always-on, always-watching-you device in your living room with the Kinect motion sensor, which has a high-definition camera in it.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.