News New Xfinity router motion-detecting feature stokes privacy fears — feature powered by Wi-Fi signals

[Admin]

Xfinity's new Wi-Fi Motion feature can detect movements in your home and share that data with you, not only by selling it to advertisers but also with government agencies without warrants.

New Xfinity router motion-detecting feature stokes privacy fears — feature powered by Wi-Fi signals : Read more

 

[chaz_music]

This technology has been around for nearly 10-15 years. It was initially an FBI/CIA tool that has finally become so easy to implement that they can build it into a standard high end WiFi router for motion detection. In the military version of this, they can actually make usable images of the people in the room. The higher the WiFi frequency, the better the image (shorter wavelengths for showing smaller features).

Nearly all ISPs are trying to find ways to monetize the data that they collect about their customers, including DNS queries (when you type a web address, they read it and same for doing searches that are not https). Similar things are happening with cars equipped with OnStar and other communication systems - even if you don't have an account with them. The auto industry has already been caught selling user data to auto insurance companies. And the same for apps on your cellphones. Especially if they are free. They are making money somehow, and it could be simply selling your data and location / travel info to insurance companies and other companies that can profit from your data.

And smart TVs? Oh my. Not a good idea. At all. Several of them have been caught send viewer data back to the mothership. Was it Vizio that the first one caught? And on this same topic, the US FCC is considering allowing the new ATSC 3.0 TV tuners to allow providers to charge for over the air TV broadcasts. To make money.

I have a zero trust policy for my ISP, so I use my own gateway equipment and use my own WiFi with a hardware firewall (don't rely on your end devices to firewall). For devices that stream, like cellphones, TVs, and Rokus, I have them on their own DMZ network (with NAT) that does not have access to my house protected network. And I have also made Cloudflare my DNS provider - not just let the ISP supply DNS web address data. Because they make money off your DNS queries. I saw the effect of this instantly one evening while watching TV with my girlfriend. She did a search for adopting cats, and a few mniutes later we started seeing cat food commercials - over and over. Dystopian.

Since we just decimated the US government agencies that protected US citizens privacy, this protection has been nearly ruined and a vacuum exists. So plan for your devices being used against you - anytime money can be made. I used to think Edward Snowden was a bit off, but not since the ... 2016 US election. Just sayin'.

 

[USAFRet]

This technology has been around for nearly 10-15 years.

While you are probably correct, lets leave the politics out of this.
Deal?
(and this goes for anyone else reading this)

 

[PedroMDK]

This technology has been around for nearly 10-15 years. It was initially an FBI/CIA tool that has finally become so easy to implement that they can build it into a standard high end WiFi router for motion detection. In the military version of this, they can actually make usable images of the people in the room. The higher the WiFi frequency, the better the image (shorter wavelengths for showing smaller features).

Nearly all ISPs are trying to find ways to monetize the data that they collect about their customers, including DNS queries (when you type a web address, they read it and same for doing searches that are not https). Similar things are happening with cars equipped with OnStar and other communication systems - even if you don't have an account with them. The auto industry has already been caught selling user data to auto insurance companies. And the same for apps on your cellphones. Especially if they are free. They are making money somehow, and it could be simply selling your data and location / travel info to insurance companies and other companies that can profit from your data.

And smart TVs? Oh my. Not a good idea. At all. Several of them have been caught send viewer data back to the mothership. Was it Vizio that the first one caught? And on this same topic, the US FCC is considering allowing the new ATSC 3.0 TV tuners to allow providers to charge for over the air TV broadcasts. To make money.

I have a zero trust policy for my ISP, so I use my own gateway equipment and use my own WiFi with a hardware firewall (don't rely on your end devices to firewall). For devices that stream, like cellphones, TVs, and Rokus, I have them on their own DMZ network (with NAT) that does not have access to my house protected network. And I have also made Cloudflare my DNS provider - not just let the ISP supply DNS web address data. Because they make money off your DNS queries. I saw the effect of this instantly one evening while watching TV with my girlfriend. She did a search for adopting cats, and a few mniutes later we started seeing cat food commercials - over and over. Dystopian.

Since we just decimated the US government agencies that protected US citizens privacy, this protection has been nearly ruined and a vacuum exists. So plan for your devices being used against you - anytime money can be made. I used to think Edward Snowden was a bit off, but not since the ... 2016 US election. Just sayin'.

Decimation is reduction by 10%.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

This feature was announced 4 months ago. Also, "renting" a router is already one of the biggest known scams ISPs use to gouge customers, especially since many have been known to charge a "rental fee" forever even after they've paid for the device, which was finally stopped by US law.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/updat...rk=public_post_embed_social-actions-reactions

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/19...fee-fix-television-viewer-protection-act-tvpa

 

[Heat_Fan89]

This feature was announced 4 months ago. Also, "renting" a router is already one of the biggest known scams ISPs use to gouge customers, especially since many have been known to charge a "rental fee" forever even after they've paid for the device, which was finally stopped by US law.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/updat...rk=public_post_embed_social-actions-reactions

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/19...fee-fix-television-viewer-protection-act-tvpa

I was onto that game many, many years ago. I am with Xfinity and use my own modem-router. Even my Xfinity rep told me, renting a modem-router from them is a giant ripoff.

 

[mamaluke]

The technology's origin was in1944. Invented by Hedy Lamarr. It was first deployed by US Navy a decade later and was used to control nuclear torpedos/etc in-flight until obsoleted by digital encryption. The military patents were sold for commercial use - that's where cellular and WiFi radio tech got MU-MIMO.

The data for detecting motion is used in every WiFi device and can be used by ANYONE who knows how to generate it or retrieve it - anywhere within WiFi range. No login or password required. It does not matter whether you disable it in your xfinity WiFi router or any other WiFi Router. The data used for detecting motion is generated by every WiFi radio chipset many times per second - it is the crux of WiFi radio . .

A motivated semi-talented programmer can implement WiFi motion-sensing functionality and can run it on a laptop outside - no physical access inside the residence. No password required, no login required, no SSID knowledge required.