[nmglug] Tinfoil hat time again: more Comcast paranoia

[Tom Ashcraft]

I think this is not coincidence and should probably make everyone on 
nmglug at lists.nmglug.org angry.

Today through my Comcast email account I received a couple emails re 
Kingston DTL+ USB via the nmglug listserv.  That's fine.  I LIKE email 
from nmglug.

What I definitely DON'T like is getting this associated email as a 
consequence:

     From:  news at e.benidata.com  (arrived 3:02 pm today)

     Subject:  ⚡See Today's Deal of the Day -- Act Fast!  $4.95 Kingston 
16GB Micro     SD Class 10

The operative common term being 'Kingston'.  Out of the blue. Three in 
one day.  Out a total of six emails for the day.

I have never had any known relationship with benidata.com and I would 
certainly have deliberately and promptly declined to receive any sales 
or marketing information from them if I did.  And of course I did 
promptly unsubscribe for further emails from them though I had never 
knowingly subscribed in the first place.

I use only DuckDuckGo for searching.  I have Firefox locked down with 
privacy Addons every which way from Sunday.  DoH network setting, strict 
tracking protection settings, NoScript, Ublock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, 
Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes, Facebook Container--I don't even use 
Facebook, it's there just in case I change my mind!

I virtually never see or hear any adds that aren't embedded directly in 
streaming podcast or YouTube content (can't figure out how to get rid of 
that except not to stream.)

Almost all of my few online purchases come through eBay and Amazon whom 
I haven't dealt with for more than a month.  No storage media for more 
than a year.  Almost all my emails are personal or related to specific 
non-commercially oriented subject matter from people or groups who are 
not commercial entities.

A couple of years ago when I got rid of our Comcast 
wifi-cable-modem-router I went through all the contractual crap and 
opted out everything related to marketing that we still might be exposed 
to that I could find.  Set up the new purchased wifi-cable-modem-router 
for Cloudflare DNS.

Yet some months ago when I searched around for products related to solar 
panels, shortly thereafter Xfinity sends me email adds trying to sell me 
on their own branded rooftop PV electric scam.

A couple weeks ago I was shopping for insurance.  First time in years.  
Suddenly Xfinity emails me and wants to sell me their own branded BS 
home, pipes and appliance insurance because of the extra strain Covid is 
placing on them.  Never had other adds for insurance other than the most 
rare and minimal for services from carriers we already had relationships 
with.

Now I have this unsolicited add for Kingston storage devices.

All too isolated as a class of events and too closely related in subject 
matter and time to be purely random and unconnected.

I think Comcast/Xfinity or some data-broker entity closely associated 
with them is mining my email account pretty directly.