[nmglug] Yet another example of Comcast/Xfinity spying and sleeze

Mon Aug 3 11:36:05 PDT 2020

Seems the marketing department pounces (and cheats) at every opportunity.

Yes, I've said it before.  No, I'm not in a position to dump them and 
won't be for a while; also, I have other email accounts with different 
providers.  It's just that I'm highly sensitized right now and think 
that knowledgeable computer users ought to occasionally be reminded of 
how prevalent this stuff is getting. And perhaps share my ire and sign 
up with some other outfit if the opportunity arises.

Yesterday evening I did a nuke-n-pave switch from Kubuntu 18.04 LTS to 
Debian 10 KDE on the that laptop I'm writing from (interesting 
cautionary tale of woe behind that, and partially self-inflicted, but 
I'll save it for another occasion).  Had to install a new instance of 
Thunderbird in a new system identity--the type of event that 
Comcast/Xfinity always seems to notice or want to get involved in in one 
way or another.  Usually another.  In this case:

"Take your in-home WiFi to the next level"   Email from Xfinity, 8:25 am.

"...Introducing Xfi Complete.  Get the complete peace of mind ... blah, 
blah, blah ...for only $25 more a month.

... If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please 
click _here_"

I did.  See attached screenshot.  Notice white NoScript icon (0 of 3 
items blocked).

All three links on the page dysfunctional.  Dead.  No way to actually 
communicate that I do not wish to receive such communications.  Not that 
I should have to because, as I've previously written, I've already done 
it before.

Tom

Here's the code from the page in case someone who understands such 
things better than I is willing and able to provide some perspective or 
objective analysis:

<!DOCTYPE html><html ng-app="comcastPC"><head><meta charset="utf-8" 
/><title></title><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, 
initial-scale=1" /><link rel="stylesheet" 
href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css"><link 
rel="stylesheet" href="styles/main.css" /></head><body><header><nav 
class="navbar navbar-inverse"><div class="container center-content"><div 
class="navbar-header"><a href="//www.xfinity.com" target="_self" 
class="navbar-brand"><span><img src="img/xfinity-logo.svg" 
style="margin-top:15px"/></span></a></div></div></nav></header><!-- 
Google Tag Manager --><noscript><iframe 
src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-P53ZR3" height="0" 
width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe> 
</noscript><script>(function (w, d, s, l, i) { w[l] = w[l] || []; 
w[l].push({ 'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(), event: 'gtm.js' }); var f 
= d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j = d.createElement(s), dl = l != 
'dataLayer' ? '&l=' + l : ''; j.async = true; j.src = 
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=' + i + dl; 
f.parentNode.insertBefore(j, f); })(window, document, 'script', 
'dataLayer', 'GTM-P53ZR3'); </script><!-- End Google Tag Manager 
--><ng-view></ng-view><br /><br /><br /><footer><div >© Comcast 
2017 </div></footer><script 
src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/1.6.5/angular.min.js"></script><script 
src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/1.6.5/angular-route.min.js"></script><script 
type="text/javascript" 
src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/1.6.5/angular-cookies.min.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/libs/ui-bootstrap-tpls-2.5.0.min.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/libs/angular-base64.min.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/app.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/services/addPreferenceService.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/services/filterHeaderService.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/controllers/mainController.js"></script><script 
src="scripts/controllers/managePreferenceController.js"></script></body></html><script 
id="f5_cspm">(function(){var 
f5_cspm={f5_p:'AOHAGAJCNBLDEPHFBKFBFJIDAENNBKNHEIEFNOJFILJIKLNIECMMANHJBENONDKENFABFDBGAAJHIAMBPANAJOFEAABPOPGEAIGHKCPJGNBAIPHFKKJKIPKKNEJLIDBH',setCharAt:function(str,index,chr){if(index>str.length-1)return 
str;return 
str.substr(0,index)+chr+str.substr(index+1);},get_byte:function(str,i){var 
s=(i/16)|0;i=(i&15);s=s*32;return((str.charCodeAt(i+16+s)-65)<<4)|(str.charCodeAt(i+s)-65);},set_byte:function(str,i,b){var 
s=(i/16)|0;i=(i&15);s=s*32;str=f5_cspm.setCharAt(str,(i+16+s),String.fromCharCode((b>>4)+65));str=f5_cspm.setCharAt(str,(i+s),String.fromCharCode((b&15)+65));return 
str;},set_latency:function(str,latency){latency=latency&0xffff;str=f5_cspm.set_byte(str,40,(latency>>8));str=f5_cspm.set_byte(str,41,(latency&0xff));str=f5_cspm.set_byte(str,35,2);return 
str;},wait_perf_data:function(){try{var 
wp=window.performance.timing;if(wp.loadEventEnd>0){var 
res=wp.loadEventEnd-wp.navigationStart;if(res<60001){var 
cookie_val=f5_cspm.set_latency(f5_cspm.f5_p,res);window.document.cookie='f5avr1103044515aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_cspm_='+encodeURIComponent(cookie_val)+';path=/';} 
return;}} catch(err){return;} 
setTimeout(f5_cspm.wait_perf_data,100);return;},go:function(){var 
chunk=window.document.cookie.split(/\s*;\s*/);for(var 
i=0;i<chunk.length;++i){var 
pair=chunk[i].split(/\s*=\s*/);if(pair[0]=='f5_cspm'&&pair[1]=='1234') 
{var d=new 
Date();d.setTime(d.getTime()-1000);window.document.cookie='f5_cspm=;expires='+d.toUTCString()+';path=/;';setTimeout(f5_cspm.wait_perf_data,100);}}}} 
f5_cspm.go();}());</script>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/attachments/20200803/889995bf/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screenshot_20200803_121438.png
Type: image/png
Size: 82625 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/attachments/20200803/889995bf/attachment-0001.png>