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Comcast adds motion sensing to millions of its newer routers, with a privacy catch

TechCrunch — Privacy · · International · Privacy Law

Comcast has added motion-sensing capability to its newer routers, allowing the devices to detect movement inside a home without dedicated sensors. The feature comes with privacy trade-offs that users should weigh before enabling it.

Why this matters: Your internet router is already the most powerful device in your home network. Now Comcast wants it to watch whether you are moving around inside your house. That is a significant expansion of what a piece of rented equipment can collect about your life. The catch buried in the headline is the part that matters. Who stores that data, for how long, and what Comcast or its partners can do with it are not small questions. Motion patterns can reveal when you sleep, when you leave, and when you are home alone. That is detailed enough to be valuable, and sensitive enough to be dangerous.

Who should care: General readers · Privacy officers · Policy

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