With the rise of social media and connected profiles, many users have lost a bit of their privacy. Now, anyone can not only know what you're doing, but also exactly what game you're playing. Worried someone might discover your love for Just Dance ? Don't worry, there are ways to hide your preferences.
Privacy on Xbox
The Xbox interface has evolved a lot in recent years, and we've gone from that side panel menu that surprised Xbox 360 to a more organized and better distributed interface where content plays a leading role. But if there is something that has also greatly improved, it is related to privacy, and that is that it is an aspect that is also extremely important when it comes to protecting our privacy, especially when the console is used by minors.
Why is it interesting to take care of privacy online?
The amount of information that can be extracted by reviewing an online profile might surprise you more than you think. Without knowing it, you could be sharing a lot of information, since depending on the privacy settings you have established, any Internet user could find out all this information:
- Know if you are online
- Know what you are watching or listening to
- Know your history of games and applications
- See what you look like
- know your real name
- See your friends list
- Talk to you by surprise in a voice chat
- See your screenshots
How can I protect my account?
Knowing all these details, you probably now think it would be a good idea to protect your account from onlookers and prying eyes, but rest assured, Xbox helps you set up privacy the first time you sign in on a console. The problem is that these settings are not personalized, so some aspects might not fit your preferences, so we are going to explain how to fully configure the privacy of your profile on an Xbox console.
- The first thing you will have to do is access the control panel Configuration
- In the Account section, select the option Online privacy and security
- Choose xbox privacy
In this section you will be able to know what type of privacy level you have selected. If you are currently using the account of a minor, ideally it should be set to the predefined option for children, but as we will see below, we can further customize the options.
The default options help to have a quick configuration depending on the person who will be using the Xbox. This option will be configured in each profile, being able to choose between a more comfortable privacy with which everyone can see your list of friends and a large amount of details, or a more moderate one with which to avoid too many onlookers. The third default option is child-oriented, which offers much more privacy.
Customize the privacy of an Xbox profile
With the idea of ​​having full control of your privacy, the most interesting thing is that you select the Customize option. Do so, and then tap on View details and customize. On the next screen you will be able to define with much more precision each and every one of the aspects related to the privileges and permissions of your Xbox profile, so spend a few minutes if you want to have complete control of what they can find out about you.
- Connection status and history: In this section we can define who can see what you are doing or what game or application you are using. You will also be able to select who can know what you are watching or listening to and if you will allow them to see your history of games and applications.
- Profile: The Xbox profile can include details such as a short biography, your location, your real name, the name by which you will be found online. In this section you can select who will be able to access this data, if everyone, friends or nobody.
- friends and clubs: This is the option where you can allow or block the possibility of adding new friends to your acquaintances list (very useful for the little ones), who can see your friends list, if you can join or create clubs and even who can see in What clubs are you signed up for?
- multiplayer connection: Online gaming can be another toxic source, so in this section you can decide if you can join multiplayer games, if you can join games on other networks (cross-play with PC or PlayStation), if other people can communicate with you by voice, text or invitations and if you can communicate by voice in other services outside of Xbox (PC and PlayStation).
- game content: This section will be in charge of controlling everything related to the captures and clips of the games. You will be able to select who can see your captures and even if you will have permission to enable the live broadcast of your game or share content created by a webcam.
- Share outside of Xbox: Here you will define who can share your content on social networks, as well as if you can share content outside of the Xbox network.
- Buy and download: This option is only used to request the profile password every time you try to make a purchase in the Store.
The easiest way to hide if you're online
All these privacy details are extremely important, but if you simply want to be connected to Xbox Live without any of your contacts knowing you're online, all you have to do is activate " Show Offline " mode in your profile. To do this, simply follow these steps:
- Press the guide button on your Xbox controller
- Scroll to your profile tab (your avatar icon)
- Click on your profile
- Scroll down to the Show connected option and select «show offline«
You'll still be connected to the Xbox Live network, able to play multiplayer games and download games and apps from the Store, but none of your contacts or any other users will know you're online, as you'll appear publicly as offline. Another option you can use is " Do Not Disturb ," which will prevent people from sending you messages or trying to start group chats while you're playing a game or watching a movie.