Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used gaming console.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to Obscure Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool that will siphon data from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other consoles.

 

The $177,000 contract requires the company to create new hardware and software tools that can extract data from gaming consoles, and to purchase used gaming consoles outside the U.S. to determine what data was left on them by previous owners that can be extracted, including information about communications with other gamers, according to Foreign Policy magazine.