Microsoft on why users can’t be completely invisible in Friends of Friends

Irked at the fact that you can’t remain totally invisible from other users ever since Microsoft implemented the Friends of Friends feature on Xbox Live’s last Fall update? Microsoft finally gives their say on the issue.

Ever since Microsoft implemented Friends of Friends, the Xbox Live feature that lets people check out the friends list of other Xbox Live members, several Xbox Live users complained about the inability to be completely invisible to people not on their friends list. Apparently users will be visible to strangers if their friends have their Friends of Friends feature set to “Open”.

Microsoft explained that even if Xbox Live users will not be completely anonymous, they can still control which parts of their profile will be visible to other users, and strangers. Said a Microsoft representative:

Within Privacy Settings they can choose to block the profile, then only Gamertag and Gamerscore will show up anywhere in the system. And as we described, if they set the profile setting to Friend’s only then only Friends will ever see their custom profile info — name, location, bio, motto, personal picture — regardless of whose list their gamertag is on.

Well, there you have it. Even if you won’t be granted total invisibility from other users, the ability to control which parts of your profile that you want to display should be enough. For now, at least.