As excitement around Microsoft's unveiling of the new Xbox One and updated Kinect dies down, the inevitable questions about consumer privacy are now cropping up.

Wary of the Kinect sensor, Peter Schaar, Germany's federal data protection commissioner, is calling the Xbox One a "monitoring device," according to a translated report in German news magazine Der Spiegel.

"The Xbox continuously records all sorts of personal information about me. Reaction rates, my learning or emotional states. They are then processed on an external server, and possibly even passed on to third parties. Whether they will ever be deleted, the person cannot influence," Schaar told Der Spiegel.

It's true that the enhanced hardware in both the Xbox One and its Kinect companions are remarkable pieces of work. I witnessed first-hand how the sensors can detect not only the pulse in users' faces, but also their facial expressions and where their attention is directed. During the Xbox launch in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft executives demonstrated how these features can be used to enhance game play, system control, as well as content delivery and consumption.

How much of that data will be stored locally, and how much will go to the always-connected cloud is, for now, unclear.

For its part, Microsoft sought to allay privacy fears with this statement:

“We know our customers want and expect strong privacy protections to be built into our products, devices and services, and for companies to be responsible stewards of their data. Microsoft has more than ten years of experience making privacy a top priority. Kinect for Xbox 360 was designed and built with strong privacy protections in place and the new Kinect will continue this commitment. We are designing the new Kinect with simple, easy methods to customize privacy settings and provide clear notifications and meaningful privacy choices for how data will be used, stored and shared. We remain fully committed to addressing our customers' privacy questions in greater detail in the coming weeks.”

There may also be some misconceptions about the Xbox One's always-on nature. For one: When you walk in the room, is it watching you?

Marc Whitten, corporate vice-president of Xbox Live, told Mashable that while Xbox One will and Kinect will always be on, "it's not watching you while it's in low-powered mode."

Regardless, Xbox One will clearly be the most attentive Xbox we've ever seen.

Microsoft Unveils the Xbox One

Homepage image by Mashable; gallery images courtesy of Microsoft