XBox Series X & S

First off, SET UP TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION! If you don't set up two-factor authentication, someone could hack into your Xbox account and buy a bunch of games at your expense. That could be costly and you don’t want that headache.

Microsoft made a change to the privacy policy right before it started selling its new Xbox consoles in 2020. They announced they will no longer collect voice search or speech-to-text data on users. This is good. Especially now that we know Sony will be recording Voice Chats from users with no way to opt out on the PS5 (Sony does this to help combat online abuse, so it’s not a terrible thing, just a good thing to be aware of).

Microsoft does not sell your personal data, which is good. Microsoft says they will use your data to target you with ads on Microsoft properties. Microsoft also says they might share your data with partners like Verizon and Facebook to collect data about your online activity for advertising purposes, and to place their own ads. Finally, Microsoft says they can combine data with third parties, such as data brokers. Be aware though, some of the games you play on the Xbox made by other companies might be collecting and sharing your data and their privacy policies would apply to your personal information. So many freakin’ privacy policies to just play games.