[nmglug] Tinfoil hat time again: more Comcast paranoia

[Brian O'Keefe]

This sort of behavior is getting scary bad. My wife and I were talking 
about a ring that she had just had repaired. Actually speaking to each 
other, no email, ims, etc. I woke my laptop to read the news and all of 
the ads on google were for rings! I think we are being monitored on a 
great level. After seeing what you just went through Tom and the efforts 
you've gone to in order to become anonymous. I fear that that is not 
possible unless we completely unplug.

Brian

On 7/31/20 5:51 PM, Tom Ashcraft wrote:
> 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.
>
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