well I'm pretty sure Kinect will work like the GPS chip on your phone... some apps will require it to work and will expressively ask you to turn it on when you start them....
so even if you want to turn it completely off, which you can do, you will need to have it connected because you will be prompted to activate it from time to time... in games, in the dashboard and for some apps... so unless you want to waste even more time than you already do by just using the pad and refusing Kinect and want to go back and forth to the closet you put it in, you should leave it plugged in....in other word some of the games and dashboard features and apps will be unusable without Kinect from what I get so far... se very usability of the XB1 seems tied to the Kinect and even if you default it to off, you WILL have to turn it on from time to time....
anyway that's how I perceive it so far and the reason why it has to be plugged in at all time IMO.... again, it's because even though you can default it to always off for everything, there will be some things that WILL require Kinect no matter what....
and I say it again there is absolutely no way they will use the Kinect to spy.... it is plain stupid.... the amount of useful information that could come out of it are close to nil.... and there is no way they can collect information from on you without you knowing... you just have to open your router UI and you'll know in a heart beat... once again using Kinect as a spy bot is the dumbest idea ever imagined.... they might as well put a guy in your living room it would be more likely to be efficient....
