One more reason not to use an ISP router, although in this case most of us are at minimum carrying around GPS homing beacons in our pocket so the carriers already know where we are.
Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
11–20 of 517 posts
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#12I remember reading this paper when it came out, didn't think it would be commercializable, and here we are. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2486001.2486039
I have a sneaky suspicion this is not something that Xfinity/Comcast just woke up one day and thought they should implement. This has all the hallmarks of the treasonous surveillance state injecting itself to instrumentalize corporations to claim they’re not violating the supreme law called the Constitution if they simply make others commit the treasonous crimes against the people.
Because we all know, of course, the Constitution only applies to the federal government, right? If mega-corporation USA Inc uses its shell company Comcast to violate the Supreme law of the land in a treasonous manner, then you are of course SOL asa mere citizen since they aren’t the federal government and the Constitution does not apply to them.
In case it want clear, that was sarcasm.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#13One takeaway from this is that there's a strong privacy case for disabling the built-in wireless network from your ISP-provided modem/router and using your own, to reduce the number of ways that your ISP can surveil you.
Even better, don't use the Comcast router at all. It's a rip off anyway
Don't they hand out combination modem/routers? What's a cheaper alternative?
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#14One takeaway from this is that there's a strong privacy case for disabling the built-in wireless network from your ISP-provided modem/router and using your own, to reduce the number of ways that your ISP can surveil you.
That’s always a good idea, but they’ll still be able to tell when someone is home because the outbound internet traffic will increase. And don’t forget to set your DNS to a non-ISP resolver.
So you need fake upstream downstream traffic, put your router in a lead box, use DNS over https, and then all that for nothing because the Amazon router was backdoored by the NSA too
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#15Xfinity won't give folks in certain locales (maybe everywhere in the US?) unlimited bandwidth unless they use their modem/router. This seems like a good reason that practice should be illegal.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#16I remember reading this paper when it came out, didn't think it would be commercializable, and here we are. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2486001.2486039
Yeah, it's bizarre.
Normally the pathway for this kind of thing would be:
1. theorized
2. proven in a research lab
3. not feasible in real-world use (fizzles and dies)
if you're lucky the path is like
1. theorized
2. proven in a research lab
3. actually somewhat feasible in real-world use!
4. startups / researchers split off to attempt to market it (fizzles and dies)
the fact that this ended up going from research paper to "Comcast can tell if I'm home based on my body's physical interaction with wifi waves" is absolutely wild
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even better, don't use the Comcast router at all. It's a rip off anyway
Don't they hand out combination modem/routers? What's a cheaper alternative?
Buy your own DOCSIS modem, opt out of renting theirs. It'll pay for itself after a few billing cycles (the modem rental fee is $15 per month)
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#18I remember reading this paper when it came out, didn't think it would be commercializable, and here we are. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2486001.2486039
I have a sneaky suspicion this is not something that Xfinity/Comcast just woke up one day and thought they should implement. This has all the hallmarks of the treasonous surveillance state injecting itself to instrumentalize corporations to claim they’re not violating the supreme law called the Constitution if they simply make others commit the treasonous crimes against the people. Because we all know, of course, the…
I miss the old days when this would come off like a crazy rant, rather than being the evening news.
In case people missed it:
https://theconversation.com/from-help-to-harm-how-the-govern...
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/even-government-thinks...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/28/government...
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#19Xfinity won't give folks in certain locales (maybe everywhere in the US?) unlimited bandwidth unless they use their modem/router. This seems like a good reason that practice should be illegal.
I use a cellular connection for my internet, but my apartment building is wired with Xfinity, and probably 90% of people use it.
Naturally, there is no way for me to opt out of this.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#20One more reason not to use an ISP router, although in this case most of us are at minimum carrying around GPS homing beacons in our pocket so the carriers already know where we are.
And now we also know the reason why they give away unlimited data for free when you use their router, but not when you want to use your own router.