Last Updated: November 2014
PrintPrint
Xbox Privacy Statement
This privacy statement applies to Xbox products and services ("Services"), which include Xbox console versions, the Xbox Live service, Games for Windows Live, Windows Phone Games, Xbox Music, Xbox Store, and other products and services that link to this privacy statement. This privacy statement does not apply to other Microsoft products and services that do not link to the Xbox Privacy Statement.
Please read the summaries below and click "Learn More" for more details. Some products, services or features mentioned in this statement may not be available in all markets. You may find still more information about Microsoft’s commitment to protecting your privacy at http://www.microsoft.com/privacy.
Microsoft account
Collecting Your Information
Using Your Information
Sharing Your Information
Accessing Your Information
Kinect
Music, Video and TV
GameDVR
Location and SmartGlass
Social
Children
Advertising
Communications
Rewards
Cookies
Payment Data
Other Information
Cookies
Most Microsoft Sites use "cookies," small text files that can be read by a web server in the domain that put the cookie on your hard drive. We may use cookies to store your preferences and settings; help with sign-in; provide targeted ads; and analyze site operations. Click here to learn more.
Microsoft account
Microsoft account is a service that lets you sign in to Microsoft products, web sites and services, as well as those of select Microsoft partners. When you create a Microsoft account, we ask you to provide certain information. When you sign in to a site or service using your Microsoft account, we collect certain information in order to verify your identity on behalf of the site or service, to protect you from malicious account usage and to protect the efficiency and security of the Microsoft account service. We also send some of this information to sites and services that you sign in to with your Microsoft account.

We use demographic information – gender, country, age and postal code but not your name or contact information – from your Microsoft account to provide personalised ads to you. You may opt out of receiving targeted ads from Microsoft Advertising by visiting our opt-out page.

To view additional details about Microsoft account, including how to create and use a Microsoft account, how to edit account information, and how we collect and use information relating to a Microsoft account, please click on Learn More.

Also, some of the applications on Xbox Live are delivered by a partner company, which may require that you create an account and sign-in credentials to use that application. You should read the application’s privacy statement to understand how your data will be managed. None of this separate account credential information will be shared with Microsoft.
When you create an account (on Xbox Live), we auto-generate a nickname for the account called a gamertag, which is used to identify you when you use the Service. Because the gamertag may be publicly displayed, you should not use personal information in your gamertag.
Learn More
Information We Collect
Microsoft collects many kinds of information in order to operate effectively and provide you with the best products, services and experiences we can.
We collect information when you register, sign in and use our sites and services. We also get information from other companies.
We collect this information in a variety of ways, including from web forms, use of Xbox features, technologies like cookies, web logging and software on your computer or other device.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
How We Use Your Personal Information
Microsoft uses the information we collect to operate, improve and personalise the products and services we offer.
We also may use the information to communicate with you, for example, informing you about your account and security updates.
And we may use the information to help make the ads you see on our ad-supported services more relevant.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Reasons We Share Your Personal Information
Except as described in this privacy statement, we won’t disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent.
Please see Other Important Privacy Information for details about when we may disclose information, including with Microsoft affiliates and vendors; when required by law or to respond to legal process; to combat fraud or protect our interest; or to protect lives.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Accessing Your Personal Information
You can view or edit your personal information, including billing and account information, privacy settings, online safety and data sharing preferences by accessing My Account or through Settings on the Xbox console. You can cancel your account at any time by contacting Customer Support. Go here to find contact information for Customer Support.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Kinect
Kinect creates a virtual gaming environment where your body motions and voice can be used to control gameplay and to navigate through the Service. Kinect uses an infrared sensor, camera and microphone to make control possible. You can turn Kinect off at any time.
The camera can be used to sign you in. To do so, it takes an image of your face and then measures distances between key points on your face to create a numeric value that represents only you. No one could look at the numbers and know they represent you. This authentication information stays on the console and is not shared with anyone.
You control what happens to photographs taken during gameplay and whether voice commands are captured for analysis.
When Kinect is used with certain games and apps, your skeletal movements can be used to estimate exercise stats. You can decide how your stats are managed and whether they are shared.
Some game titles may take advantage of a new Xbox capability called expressions. This feature allows you to use your defined facial expressions to control or influence a game. This data does not identify you, stays on the console and is destroyed once your session ends.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Xbox Music, Video and TV
To enable a sharing experience on Xbox Music and Xbox Video and help you discover content that may interest you, Microsoft will collect information about what content you play, the length of play and the rating you give in Xbox Music and Xbox Video. This information is sent to Microsoft directly from the device using the Xbox Music or Xbox Video service. If you are watching Live TV through the Xbox TV app, you can choose whether your live TV viewing history is sent to Microsoft. We may also collect TV viewing history from your console in a way that does not identify you or others.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
GameDVR and Upload Studio
GameDVR is an Xbox One feature that lets you record the game you are playing, including when you are playing with other people in your house or multiplayer on Xbox Live.
When playing multiplayer on Xbox Live, any player in that session can use GameDVR to record their view of the gameplay taking place in that session. The recording may capture your in-game character and gamertag in the game clips created by other players in the gameplay session. No audio chat is recorded in these game clips.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Xbox Location and SmartGlass
Xbox console and web sites use your IP address to provide the Service. If you allow an Xbox application on Windows Phone to access your location, the approximate location of your phone may be sent periodically to Microsoft in order to award achievements, provide in-game rewards or customise gameplay. For example, games may use your location to award an achievement based on the distance travelled between game sessions. Xbox applications will only collect and store the approximate location of your phone as necessary for these purposes.
Xbox SmartGlass is an application that lets you use a phone or tablet to enhance games and entertainment experiences on the Xbox console. If you choose to download and use Xbox SmartGlass, it will collect only device and usage data (for example, device type and the game or application you are controlling) that cannot be used to identify you.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Xbox Social
If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, your gamertag and statistics such as high scores will be visible to other subscribers through the Xbox Live service, and may be visible to the general public, on properties associated with the service (for example, within a game, on the web and/or on the Windows Phone).
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Children and Parental Consent
If you have children who use the Service, you can set up child accounts during account creation. Children 17 and younger cannot create an account for the Service without parental consent. The owner of the associated parent account must consent to the collection of information about the child. As a parent you can choose privacy settings based on your comfort level for each child account.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Display of Advertising

Many of our web sites and online services are supported by advertising.
Most of the online advertisements on Microsoft sites and services are displayed by Microsoft Advertising. When we display online advertisements to you, we will place one or more persistent cookies on your computer in order to recognise your computer each time we display an ad to you. Because we serve advertisements on our own web sites as well as those of our advertising and publisher partners, we are able to compile information over time about the types of pages, content and ads you, or others who are using your computer, visited or viewed. This information is used for many purposes, for example, it helps us try to ensure that you do not see the same advertisements over and over again. We also use this information to help select and display targeted advertisements that we believe may be of interest to you.
You may opt out of receiving targeted ads from Microsoft Advertising by visiting our opt-out page. For more information about how Microsoft Advertising collects and uses information, please see the Microsoft Advertising Privacy Statement.
We also allow third-party ad companies, including other ad networks, to display advertisements on our sites. In some cases, these third parties may also place cookies on your computer. These companies currently include, but are not limited to: 24/7 Real Media, adblade, AdConion, AdFusion, Advertising.com, AppNexus, Bane Media, Brand.net, CasaleMedia, Collective Media, InMobi, Interclick, Jumptap, Millennial Media, nugg.adAG, Mobclix, Mojiva, SpecificMedia, Tribal Fusion, ValueClick, Where.com, Yahoo!, YuMe, Zumobi. These companies may offer you a way to opt out of ad targeting based on their cookies. You may find more information by clicking on the company names above and following the links to the web sites of each company. Many of them are also members of the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance, which each provide a simple way to opt out of ad targeting from participating companies.
Go to top of pageTop of page
Communication Preferences
You can stop delivery of future promotional e-mail from Xbox by following the specific instructions in the e-mail you receive. If you have an Xbox Live account, you can set your contact preferences and choose whether to share your contact information with Xbox partners from Xbox.com or through the console.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Xbox Live Rewards
Xbox Live Rewards is a program you can join to receive Xbox credit for being active on the Services. It can be reached at rewards.xbox.com. You must agree to receive promotional communications from the Rewards program as a condition of joining. The program collects personal information including first name, last name, gamer tag and demographic information.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Cookies & Similar Technologies
Most Microsoft websites use "cookies", which are small text files stored on your device, to help operate the sites and collect information about online activity. For instance, we use cookies to store your preferences and settings; help with sign-in; provide targeted ads; combat fraud; and analyse site operations.
We also use web beacons to help deliver cookies and compile analytics. These may include web beacons from third-party service providers.
You have a variety of tools to control cookies and similar technologies, including:
Browser controls to block and delete cookies;
Advertising controls, including Microsoft's controls at http://choice.live.com/advertisementchoice/, to opt out of receiving behaviourally targeted ads; and
Controls from some analytics service providers to opt out of data collection through web beacons.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Payment Data
Payment Data is the information that you provide when you make online purchases. This may include your payment instrument number (e.g., credit card, PayPal), your name and billing address, and the security code associated with your payment instrument (e.g., the CSV or CVV). This section provides additional information regarding the collection and use of your payment information.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
Other Important Privacy Information
Learn more about
Protecting the security of personal information
Where we store and process information
Changes to our privacy statements
How to Contact Us
If you have a technical or general support question, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/ to learn more about Microsoft Support offerings.
If you have a Microsoft account password question, please visit Microsoft account support.
If you have a general privacy question or a question for the Chief Privacy Officer of Microsoft or want to request access to your personal information, please contact us by using our Web form.
By mail: Microsoft Privacy, Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052 USA
By Phone: 425-882-8080
Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited is our data protection representative for the European Economic Area and Switzerland. The data protection officer of Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited can be reached at the following address:
Microsoft Ireland Operations, Ltd.
Attn: Data Protection
Carmenhall Road
Sandyford, Dublin 18, Ireland
To find the Microsoft subsidiary in your country or region, see http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/.
Learn MoreGo to top of pageTop of page
We self-certify compliance with:
Safe harbor
More on Privacy & Security at Microsoft
Privacy at Microsoft >
Controlling your online privacy >
Security at Home >
United Kingdom
Microsoft
©2015 Microsoft
Contact UsTerms of UseTrademarksPrivacy & CookiesAbout our ads