posted in Technology
Comcast turns your Xfinity WiFi into a home motion detector
Make no mistake, this is 100% going to be Comcast’s alternative to more expensive surveillance options a la Flock, or workplace presence sensor arrays.
www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/comcast-turns-your-xfinity-wifi-into-a-home-motion-detector/
PSA: If you can afford your own a retail router, it’s always a better idea than using the one provided by your ISP. Make no mistake, Xfinity is absolutely collecting (and probably selling) data on the traffic of every device on your network.
Xfinity is absolutely collecting (and probably selling) data on the traffic of every device on your network.
They’re doing that anyway via the modem. Unless you are tunnelling everything your ISP sees every byte you send.
By tunnelling, you mean using a VPN?
Yeah but to clarify, encrypted traffic is still encrypted. They can’t see specifics beyond the sites you went to, urls, dns queries, etc… to hide that you’d need a VPN.
You can hide DNS through DoT/DoH as well at least
Domains, not URLs. www.baeldung.com/cs/https-urls-encrypted
Wouldn’t companies also be able to do it on any WiFi device, like a phone or a smart watch?
You can also get your own modem, but that doesn’t change the fact that yes, you need to use a VPN for any external traffic you don’t want your ISP seeing.
However, ISP controlled routers provide them direct visibility into your LAN, which they otherwise wouldn’t see. This gives WAY more detailed information about you and your behavior, i.e. the original article.