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Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

xfinity.com

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Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#341

Post by troupo »

nerdsniper wrote: post #259
reissbaker wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What law would you propose? I think the hard part is "Instagram and TikTok remain free-with-ads."

Would ads still be worth enough if they were targeted based on things like what you watch/read/follow/subscribe to on that platform and your general location? Or can instagram only be free if ads are targeted to detailed profiles of individuals built over decades as they are tracked across the whole internet?

> Would ads still be worth enough if they were targeted based on things like what you watch/read/follow/subscribe to on that platform and your general location?

Yes. Targeted ads need to be 100% to 700% more efficient than regular ads to be as profitable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43996623

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#342

Post by troupo »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #280
reissbaker wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What law would you propose? I think the hard part is "Instagram and TikTok remain free-with-ads."

Good riddance to everything supported by ads. I genuinely wonder if people would wind up spending less money if they had to pay for services than if they get exposed to ads that lead them to buy more things. But either way, once ads and "free with ads" are gone, there's much more room for other competitors.

> Good riddance to everything supported by ads.

Ads don't require pervasive and invasive tracking for every breath you take

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#343

Post by Dylan16807 »

aspenmayer wrote: post #334
Dylan16807 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Legal limits on national security agencies You're not talking about what they're talking about. They're talking about limiting corporate data collection. If companies don't build this into routers, then 99% of routers won't be collecting this data, and foreign spies won't have any data to steal.

They will classify the data as necessary for business purposes and collect it under a different name. They will be obligated to pass full take information if necessary, and it will be tapped at any point by employees who are given NSLs and asked/told to do things under penalty of law where applicable, and on threat of arrest or dismissal if not, or by federal agents themselves or their deputies or other approved thir…

> They will classify the data as necessary for business purposes and collect it under a different name.

Laws are powerful enough to stop that.

> wiretaps

I said 99%, not 100%.

> any third party in range of the WiFi network can likely do the same thing passively

But they won't do it in bulk without a lot of motivation (like profit).

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#344

Post by munksbeer »

jraph wrote: post #320
dcow wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We suffer from a problem that engineers want nothing to do with politics. I 1000% agree we need a digital bill of rights. It pains me every time a “well behaved” website pops up a cookie consent banner for the billionth time after I already consented because the browser wiped all the persistent user identifiers available to it. For my protection -_- I want privacy codified in human law. I didn't vote for standards bo…

> It pains me every time a “well behaved” website pops up a cookie consent banner for the billionth time after I already consented because the browser wiped all the persistent user identifiers available to it. Do yourself a favor and enable the Cookie lists in uBlock Origin. I'm personally grateful that a law requires my consent before tracking me. That means I should not be tracked without me saying OK without monet…

> Do yourself a favor and enable the Cookie lists in uBlock Origin.

Could you elaborate on this please? I'm sifting through the options and not sure what I'm looking for (disclaimer: I have never once opened the uBlock Origin settings menu in all the years I've used it).

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#345

Post by slt2021 »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #305
SoftTalker wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also get better rates if you use their equipment.

Surely that is not true? I thought rental fees were common with using the vendor equipment (something like $10/month). It is a frequently listed as a cost cutting measure to buy your own modem rather than rent from The ISP. A modem is $100-200, so you should be net positive after a year on the investment.

docsis modem costs $30, wireless AP costs another $50, add repeaters if you want.

I have been using my setup for 9 years and never paid a dime in rent of equipment.

the setup is plug-n-play / one youtube video away

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#346

Post by jolmg »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #282
dcow wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how do you force all consumers to buy their own privacy hardware? Edit: sorry my question is not strictly how one person would mangle their hardware so it breaks presence detection, it’s how the tech industry would develop an at scale everyday consumer solution to this problem.

Require certain disclosures to be made in not so fine print. Require that each privacy waiver is individually initialed, per clause, in wet ink. This shit would end tomorrow if they had to start delivering modems with 1 inch high letters that said "THIS DEVICE WILL TRACK YOUR LOCATION WITHIN YOUR HOME AND SHARE THAT DATA WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE", and the modem didn't work until you went down to th…

> This shit would end tomorrow if they had to start delivering modems with 1 inch high letters that said "THIS DEVICE WILL TRACK YOUR LOCATION WITHIN YOUR HOME AND SHARE THAT DATA WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE",

I have the urge to laugh at this, but maybe I'm just too cynical. Pretty sure we still live in an age where most people would let go of principles like privacy for a bit of convenience.

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#347

Post by slt2021 »

boston_clone wrote: post #154
slt2021 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they only have some level of control over DOCSIS modem. if you install the cheapest/simplest DOCSIS modem, and connect it to your own wireless access point that is NOT controlled by Comcast - they wont know anything. They will only see traffic coming from 1 local IP - of your wireless AP

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.

>They provide a modem / router combination device at even their cheapest tier.

you can bring your own modem & AP

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#349

Post by djhn »

munksbeer wrote: post #344
jraph wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It pains me every time a “well behaved” website pops up a cookie consent banner for the billionth time after I already consented because the browser wiped all the persistent user identifiers available to it. Do yourself a favor and enable the Cookie lists in uBlock Origin. I'm personally grateful that a law requires my consent before tracking me. That means I should not be tracked without me saying OK without monet…

> Do yourself a favor and enable the Cookie lists in uBlock Origin. Could you elaborate on this please? I'm sifting through the options and not sure what I'm looking for (disclaimer: I have never once opened the uBlock Origin settings menu in all the years I've used it).

EasyList cookiefilter. Works in uBlock lite as well. It hides all permission notices and consent forms for things you are (presumably) blocking anyway.

Re: Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion

#350

Post by slt2021 »

cortesoft wrote: post #246
margalabargala wrote: post #160

Earlier 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.

I did that, and then a few years later they no longer supported that version. I gave up and used the provided modem.... guess I could put it in a faraday cage to prevent the WiFi from being enabled...

DOCSIS protocol hasn't changed, 3.0 modems are still being supported, just like a decade ago
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