Comcast is once again under ardor forinjecting JavaScript codeinto internet site its customer visit .
Last calendar week , userbham3dmantook to the Xfinity forumto complain about Comcast insertinghundreds of lines of codeinto their surf school term . The code come out a pop - up telling them to upgrade to a unexampled modem .
This is far from the first clock time Comcast has taken heat for secretly come in computer code into equipment on its net . In 2014 , the troupe gotcalled outfor pounding wi - fi hotspot users with pop - ups , and the modem - upgrade pop - ups first surfacedearly last year . But the company ’s response this meter around only added fuel to the simmer fire .
“ I just learned of this dispicable [ sic ] Comcast practice today and I am livid , ” bham3dman indite .
Comcast ’s solution ? The exploiter should have checked their email spam folder .
Livingood , who confirmed to Gizmodo that he responded to bham3dman , assert to the user that the soda water - ups are n’t ad at all . He instead said they were presentment alerting users that their modems were “ either end of life ( EOL ) or that you are about to get a fastness ascent that the model will be unable to birth . ” Thespecifics of the languageis important : Simply notifying drug user they have a faulty modem is n’t the same as enticing them to upgrade to a new one for no reason . One could be considered a bare notification , while the other would be a forbidden ad .
Motherboardsurfaced one of the modem tonic - ups when similar complaint came up last year . The message links to Comcast ’s My gimmick pageboy . dawn through link to a lean of modems you canpurchase via Amazon . A Comcast interpreter secernate Gizmodo that the company also offers customers the alternative to rent a modem from the caller .
On the question of whether this qualify as an ad or not , bham3dman call up shit . Livinsgood said the message only show up if your modem is dead or dying , but bham3dman said they ’d been see to it by Comcast ’s own musical accompaniment team that their modem was perfectly fine , neither end - of - life nor incapable of handling increased speeds . Further , when bham3dman reached out to customer service of process supervisors to complain , the user said , most had never listen of the drill of inject computer code or , if they were aware , did n’t know how to turn it off .
Incredibly , Livingood suggested it was all bham3dman ’s own fault : “ The notice is typically send after a client ignores several emails . Perhaps some of those ended up in your spam leaflet ? ”
Creepily trespassing computer code - injections aside , for a telecommunication whale to say , in 2017 , that pop - up notification are unavoidable is absurd . No one can turn back the notices ? If they ’re triggered by ignore email , ca n’t the trigger be disable ? And why mail emails in the first piazza , when the user has been insure they have a fully functioning modem ?
Livingood , who worsen our request to further remark on the pop - ups , was careful in his replies not to turn over whether it ’s actually fair to user to send them substance this way , but that ’s the real take here . If this is mean to avail customers , it ’s as ego - attend a way to do it as potential — and it could be dangerous . As Motherboard noted , using these type of pa - ups can train exploiter to be less vigilant about soda pop - ups , which hacker can use for malicious purposes .
[ The Next Web ]
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