holy shit we live in a matrix
Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
191–200 of 517 posts
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can also open it up and disconnect the wifi antennas, or cut the traces if they're on the PCB.
Those vendor modems are rentals and expected to be returned in working order. Would you likely get away with it? Sure, nobody is paying techs to diagnose why the WiFi is failing for unit #367326, but cutting traces is definitely crossing some lines.
I wonder what they do with them when they’re returned. Ship em off in pallets to e waste buyers in China I would guess.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#193I've been telling people for ages to not trust ISP provided hardware. Notice the vague language here which means they reserve the right to share private information for anything that might be called an investigation, or for any dispute which includes them (didn't pay your bill?), or a subpoena. Subject to applicable law, Comcast may disclose information generated by your WiFi Motion to third parties without further n…
Scary, but is it any scarier than the status quo before this feature was implemented? The fidelity of the data, perhaps, but it's more or less been the standard that our footprint where we intersect with a third-party is no longer ours to control.
The status quo after January 2025 looks nothing like it did before.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm. Not much of this is true. They provide a modem / router combination device at even their cheapest tier. That device can leverage this technology, and the technology isn’t reliant on traffic. They can gather plenty, and can provide it to third parties without our knowledge or consent.
Hmm. That misses the broader reality. What you're missing, is that you are allowed to use your own modem. You can purchase an Arris Surfboard, and use that. They still have control of that modem, but can gather no downstream data. That the devices are not distributed by Comcast personally is not relevant to you being able to do this.
Why an Arris Surfboard specifically? Just checked their website and the ratings are not good?
Edit: thanks for the downvote! The few I clicked on their website have weak ratings but they are rated much better on Amazon.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
The solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal. If we rely on the technical path, Comcast can achieve the same by how many active IPv6 addresses are in use. Even if you aren't using your phone, the device is going to be constantly pinging services like email, and your ISP can use that to piece together how many people are at home. If we rely on legal protection, then not only Comcast, but all ISPs will…
> The solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal. I disagree. Solutions should be technical whenever possible, because in practice, laws tend to be abused and/or not enforced. Laws also need resources and cooperation to be enforced, and some laws are hard to enforce without creating backdoors or compromising other rights. "ISPs will be prohibited from spying on their customers" doesn't mean ISPs won't s…
There is no technical solution for this unless you want to invest billions/trillions in building new computing and networking platforms created with privacy in mind.
ISPs will always have the ability to at least deduce whether a connection was used, the MAC address, and it there is WiFi, unfortunately whether people are physically present.
If we look at the roadmap for WiFi/phones/etc, they will soon gain the ability to map out your home, including objects, using consumer radios.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#196> Subject to applicable law, Comcast may disclose information generated by your WiFi Motion to third parties without further notice to you in connection with any law enforcement investigation or proceeding, any dispute to which Comcast is a party, or pursuant to a court order or subpoena. Sounds like, at least in some limited circumstances (using the provided WiFi AP, having this feature turned on, etc), ISPs are goi…
The solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal. If we rely on the technical path, Comcast can achieve the same by how many active IPv6 addresses are in use. Even if you aren't using your phone, the device is going to be constantly pinging services like email, and your ISP can use that to piece together how many people are at home. If we rely on legal protection, then not only Comcast, but all ISPs will…
"The solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal."
Laws can be broken. Laws of physics cannot. Best to utilize both a legal and physical defense.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm. That misses the broader reality. What you're missing, is that you are allowed to use your own modem. You can purchase an Arris Surfboard, and use that. They still have control of that modem, but can gather no downstream data. That the devices are not distributed by Comcast personally is not relevant to you being able to do this.
The people who do this will be a vanishingly small minority. It's not as easy to set up one's own modem as it is their own router, IME. And even then, going with your own router is rare.
> It's not as easy to set up one's own modem as it is their own router, IME.
I mean, I suppose it's got the additional step of calling Comcast and giving them the MAC of your modem, but IIRC that's all I had to do after buying one on their approved list. Been at least 7-8 years since I had them, though.
You can plug-and-play with a consumer "router", but even then you need to know the difference between WAN and LAN sides. So the extra effort seems minimal.
Most people don't know how to set up either one. I know when the fiber techs came to my house to set me up they were greatly impressed at my (fairly basic; I don't do this for a living) networking knowledge.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#198I don't want my ISP doing this to me, but it sounds like something pretty cool to do myself. Does anybody know what the current state of "self-hosting" this kind of functionality is?
Just get cameras and local storage/processing for them. No need for elaborate Wi-Fi presence detection hacks.
Presence detection without the possibility of images being captured seems a reasonable application to me. So much the better if I could do it with hardware I already have versus installing motion detectors or other sensors.
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#199Great, I always wanted to
- be able to spy on my neighbors
- add more surveillance systems into my house
- have my neighbors be able to spy on me through my walls
Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal. I disagree. Solutions should be technical whenever possible, because in practice, laws tend to be abused and/or not enforced. Laws also need resources and cooperation to be enforced, and some laws are hard to enforce without creating backdoors or compromising other rights. "ISPs will be prohibited from spying on their customers" doesn't mean ISPs won't s…
There is no technical solution for this unless you want to invest billions/trillions in building new computing and networking platforms created with privacy in mind. ISPs will always have the ability to at least deduce whether a connection was used, the MAC address, and it there is WiFi, unfortunately whether people are physically present. If we look at the roadmap for WiFi/phones/etc, they will soon gain the ability…
"There is no technical solution for this"
This isn't really true. The easiest technical solution to the problem of ISPs using your wifi data is to simply use your own WiFi router which does not send the data to them.