Sony Patent plans to track your DNA, Fingerprints, Voice Pattern, Iris and Face.

[A7MAD]

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20120240223.pdf

Sony Computer Entertainment (the PlayStation division of Sony) has in their plans to store your biometric data online and use it to keep a constant eye on you in the future, horray for Big Brother (not the TV show).

Filed back in May, the patent describes the ‘problem’ of being unable to trust that the people who log in to their devices are actually the main account holder, rather than someone who has just been given the device after it has been unlocked.

Apparently, they plan to solve this by collecting your Biometric data:

To overcome the above disadvantages, embodiments of the invention are directed to consumer devices and methods for operating consumer devices. According to embodiments of the invention a user of a consumer electronics device is uniquely identified using a metric that is contingent upon the user using the device normally. Content that depends on the user’s identity can be provided to or from the device. According to certain embodiments, a user may be uniquely identified using a biometric sensor to provide the metric. Examples of suitable biometric sensors include fingerprint sensors, hand sensors, face recognition systems, iris scanners retinal scanners, voice pattern analyzers, and DNA analyzers. The biometric sensor senses a user biometric during normal operation of the device by the user. In certain embodiments of the invention a user identification unit incorporated into a control module of the device.

They also explain how the data could be used to create a profile about you and your gaming preferences...

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Personally speaking, if Sony go this route (by implementing it with the PS4 or Vita) they can get stuffed. Talk about violation of my privacy.

[radgamer420]

And if Sony sees that youre not the main account holder a black van will pull up to your house and you'll be taken bound with a dark hood over your head to an undisclosed location and be subjected to chemical interrogation and then debriefed.

[MBS D@v!d]

Lol... most people don't even know that this is already going on.

I wonder where humanity will draw the line and say "no more". I mean this is ridiculous, but so many people just don't care. It's like they're hypnotized.

Thanks a lot for this info. This concerns me a lot. PSN/XBL is already designed to monitor gamers, but this would be another dimension.

[Wrath]

Most of these patents don't ever see the light of day anyway... Companies just block them so that they may not be used by competitors.

This will most likely be one of them.

[Morganator]

Most of these patents don't ever see the light of day anyway... Companies just block them so that they may not be used by competitors.

This will most likely be one of them.

This does have other applications though. Sony could be eying the security industry in which, uh-uh.

[Wrath]

This does have other applications though. Sony could be eying the security industry in which, uh-uh.

Fair enough.

But as long as the security industry doesn't magically join forces with the gaming business I'll be fine.

[Morganator]

Fair enough.

But as long as the security industry doesn't magically join forces with the gaming business I'll be fine.

True enough. I still don't like that it's even there though. One aspect is the integration for cyber security which does worry me. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Soldier 95B]

And if Sony sees that youre not the main account holder a black van will pull up to your house and you'll be taken bound with a dark hood over your head to an undisclosed location and be subjected to chemical interrogation and then debriefed.

The important questions is, will I get spanked?

[Terminator 101]

I predict that PS5 will be the first Sony console that might have something like this integrated....

[MBS D@v!d]

Errm... Gaming industry is part of the media industry. This means that they are already joined ("security industry" and media).

"Security" is not security nowadays... it means "taking away basic rights and freedom for more control over the population".

Spoiler because it gets a little offtopic at the end:

The surveillance these days is already ridiculously huge. If it gets any more extreme, we're screwed. Next stage in this "game" is a cashless society. Total monitoring of financial transactions. And if your credit card says "no! you won't buy this item" - you're screwed. And selling a game or whatever to another person - privately - won't be possible anymore. We can already see this in the gaming industry.

This is a VERY serious topic. If Sony does this officially or not doesn't matter. This patent - I don't care about it. What's important is the stuff that's going on behind the scenes.


I hope that people will stand up for their freedom and their rights and take them back. We have already allowed them to take away a lot of rights and freedom for the sake of "security" (=surveillance). I hope that the gaming industry gets honest and customer friendly again. I want games that are FINISHED, I want to have access to everything that's on the disc, I don't want any pre-order exclusive (or worse: Gamestop- or Amazon-exlusive DLC's) DLC's, I want access to everything from a game. I want it to be on the disc. If DLC is released, it MUST be additional content that the developers couldn't get into the game, so they release it afterwards when they had time to polish it. It must be additional, and not parts of the game that get removed and then released as "DLC". I want Collector's Editions to be something for - thank you captain obvious - collectors! All the content in these CE's must be stuff that's not ingame-related. No DLC's, no exclusive ingame content.

Speaking of Collector's Editions... I'd rather have an Assassin's Tomahawk replica (real life size) from AC3 than all the DLC and other crap. The statue is cool, but I guess most people would prefer the Tomahawk. But what does Ubisoft do? They put a lot of DLC's in the CE. That just sucks. But whatever - I'm going offtopic. Sorry.

[radgamer420]

The important questions is, will I get spanked?

You never know. lol

[mankind]

The important questions is, will I get spanked?

[davin_g]

What if I the user WANT my games or devices locked. What if I don't want my WIFE to snoop through my Erickson phone? Or child using my VIAO laptop. It can have other uses as well. Trust me....my wife knows my passwords lol.

Also can keep people from stealing my stuff and trying to resale it.