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.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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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.
Wouldn't companies also be able to do it on any WiFi device, like a phone or a smart watch?
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.
Ubiquiti isn't perfect but they make a really good product and you don't have to connect it with a cloud
I remember the scientific article of this technology as a proof of concept. Honestly it didn't take an ISP very long to ~~weaponize it~~ offer it as a service.
The Dark Knight surveillance tech is real life now. We're screwed.
Yep it will get used by advertisers to know how many times you get up while watching netflix, or by police to know when to conduct a raid.
The internet is increasingly a weapon
Last time I had to use their services I wrapped their modem/router that they forced me to use in a roll of aluminum foil and ran one short ethernet cable out to use my own router with whatever I want. Blocked all their public WiFi you can't turn off and roasted that thing. I was genuinely surprised that it still worked when I gave it back.