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A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

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Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#21

Post by [deleted] »

diggan wrote: post #14
htgb wrote: post #5

If 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…

[deleted]

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#22

Post by cptskippy »

htgb wrote: post #5

If 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?

To a degree yes, there is no public resource to lookup that information. There are however brokers who deal in that data however the quality is questionable (e.g. I routinely receive fliers in the mail at my new address from house flippers who wish to purchase my old property).

People in the US consider their address to be private information even if it is easily obtainable.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#24

Post by cptskippy »

I recall once when a storm knocked down the cable lines in my neighbor's yard. He called Comcast to report the downed line however he wasn't a customer but some how got an appointment to come out on my account. I received a call confirming the appointment time the day it was set to happen.

Aother interesting quirk of their system is that if you ever contact them about your account, whatever phone number you use to contact them is automatically added to their CRM system and associated with your account. That phone number is not shown on your account though if you login to check.

I know this because I received a marketing call at my Office Desk Phone regarding my home account. The agent asked for me by name and then said something like "hi, I was calling to discuss your account that services ". I logged into my Account on their website and verified that my office phone number was not associated with my account. Then I interrupted their script to ask how they got the number and they said that it was associated with my account.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#25

Post by icedchai »

cptskippy wrote: post #22
htgb wrote: post #5

If 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? To a degree yes, there is no public resource to lookup that information. There are however brokers who deal in that data however the quality is questionable (e.g. I routinely receive fliers in the mail at my new address from house flippers who wish to purchase my old property). People in the US consider their address to be private information…

Most people are naive. And the public resource is called "Google."

You can enter just about any land line number and find the home address in the first page of search results.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#26

Post by cptskippy »

icedchai wrote: post #25
cptskippy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So are telephone numbers and addresses considered very private in the US? To a degree yes, there is no public resource to lookup that information. There are however brokers who deal in that data however the quality is questionable (e.g. I routinely receive fliers in the mail at my new address from house flippers who wish to purchase my old property). People in the US consider their address to be private information…

Most people are naive. And the public resource is called "Google." You can enter just about any land line number and find the home address in the first page of search results.

> land line number

I've had the same cellphone number for over 20 years, never in my life have I had a land line.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#28

Post by kurthr »

htgb wrote: post #5

If 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…

If you're in the US you receive about 3 spoofed "spam" calls a day telling you the IRS is sending the cops after you, that you need to pay for Mandarin classes (in Mandarin), and "Vacation Opportunities"... so the idea that spoofing a telephone number is difficult or rare is obviously untrue.

The idea that an automated read out of an address (especially any number) makes capture difficult is a little strange. If nothing else, hire Mechanical Turk for 5 cents.

What the value of the information is (and whether it's below cost) I don't know, but the fact that you have Comcast shows that you have a fair bit of disposable income ... so whether it's another spam call to a known good number in a targeted location or just to check if you're home before you're robbed... I'd say it might be worth at least pennies.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#29

Post by icedchai »

cptskippy wrote: post #26
icedchai wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are naive. And the public resource is called "Google." You can enter just about any land line number and find the home address in the first page of search results.

> land line number I've had the same cellphone number for over 20 years, never in my life have I had a land line.

Cell numbers are often harder to Google. However, if I google my own, I do find a link to a third party site that has my full name and home address available for free.

Re: A privacy flaw in Comcast's automated telephone system

#30

Post by sli »

kurthr wrote: post #28
htgb wrote: post #5

If 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…

If you're in the US you receive about 3 spoofed "spam" calls a day telling you the IRS is sending the cops after you, that you need to pay for Mandarin classes (in Mandarin), and "Vacation Opportunities"... so the idea that spoofing a telephone number is difficult or rare is obviously untrue. The idea that an automated read out of an address (especially any number) makes capture difficult is a little strange. If noth…

Caller ID spoofing can be done with an Android app. It's supremely trivial.
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