Remember the Time when you just look for an Adress in a Telephonebook?
You could always opt out of the white pages. Not the case here.
A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#12If I read this correctly, you have to spoof the telephone number in order to get the address, and you only get it read out loud so automation isn't trivial. To me, it doesn't feel like a big deal, but that might be because in Sweden, everyone's [1] addresses are freely available and searchable online, given for example name or telephone number. See [2] and [3] for example. So are telephone numbers and addresses consi…
It’s pretty trivial to spoof caller ID though; there is basically zero security that prevents it from happening and many apps that make it easy.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#13Pfft, boring stuff. Comcast will let anyone get your home address, name, last 4 digits of SSN with just your IP address!
> Comcast will let anyone get your home address, name, last 4 digits of SSN with just your IP address! IP address? Really?
Yes, really. Of course they are nice enough to support multiple methods of searching for accounts, so you aren’t restricted to just looking up by IP addresses.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#14If I read this correctly, you have to spoof the telephone number in order to get the address, and you only get it read out loud so automation isn't trivial. To me, it doesn't feel like a big deal, but that might be because in Sweden, everyone's [1] addresses are freely available and searchable online, given for example name or telephone number. See [2] and [3] for example. So are telephone numbers and addresses consi…
I'm swedish as well, and explaining this to my wife from Peru was a fun experience. The rest of the world is not as open with neither address information or salary information as Sweden is. If this is good or bad, I'm not sure but it saved me in a number of situations to be able to search for someone's number via a public website.
Keep in mind that the social number in USA is apparently also supposed to be secret (like a password) which sounds absolutely crazy to me.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#15If I read this correctly, you have to spoof the telephone number in order to get the address, and you only get it read out loud so automation isn't trivial. To me, it doesn't feel like a big deal, but that might be because in Sweden, everyone's [1] addresses are freely available and searchable online, given for example name or telephone number. See [2] and [3] for example. So are telephone numbers and addresses consi…
>So are telephone numbers and addresses considered very private in the US?
Only by people who are unfamiliar with how things work in the US.
This thing right here is nothing, I see worse stuff on a daily basis.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#16If I read this correctly, you have to spoof the telephone number in order to get the address, and you only get it read out loud so automation isn't trivial. To me, it doesn't feel like a big deal, but that might be because in Sweden, everyone's [1] addresses are freely available and searchable online, given for example name or telephone number. See [2] and [3] for example. So are telephone numbers and addresses consi…
I'm swedish as well, and explaining this to my wife from Peru was a fun experience. The rest of the world is not as open with neither address information or salary information as Sweden is. If this is good or bad, I'm not sure but it saved me in a number of situations to be able to search for someone's number via a public website. Keep in mind that the social number in USA is apparently also supposed to be secret (li…
Yeah, I suppose that's right. And as you say, it's very practical.
> Keep in mind that the social number in USA is apparently also supposed to be secret (like a password) which sounds absolutely crazy to me.
That's very true, reminds me of this video [1] by CGP Grey, giving some background of the issue.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#17Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a thread here recently about how it costs 10 bucks to rent out a cellular tower in Malaysia and co-opt a cell phone number as roaming, in order to defeat SMS security 2FA. Experts on HN were saying that the trunk level protocols for cell phone numbers are pretty much worthless when it comes to security. Their conclusion was that: security in this world is so poor that you might as well live with the assumpt…
It's ludicrous to me that many services, especially financial, go through the trouble of setting up SMS 2 factor, but not TOTP.
I have a friend that was at the beach with her husband, and she had taken her phone with her, but her husband left his in the car.
Thieves had used a jammer/replay device to unlock their car, remove her husband's phone from his Otterbox case, take his SIM card, reassemble the phone, and steal several credit cards from his wallet (also in the car).
Within the hour, my friend began receiving fraud alerts. If she had not taken her phone with her, they would not have known for quite a few hours, at least.
Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#19Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system
#20If I read this correctly, you have to spoof the telephone number in order to get the address, and you only get it read out loud so automation isn't trivial. To me, it doesn't feel like a big deal, but that might be because in Sweden, everyone's [1] addresses are freely available and searchable online, given for example name or telephone number. See [2] and [3] for example. So are telephone numbers and addresses consi…
>So are telephone numbers and addresses considered very private in the US?
Very private? Not usually. Unless someone chose (and paid) to have them unlisted, they used to be in published whitepages. And the overwhelming majority of people didn't pay to have them removed.
Today cellphone numbers are typically more private although addresses for most people are still usually pretty easy to find and are often part of a public record that can be searched.