Comcast accidentally published 200,000 "unlisted" phone numbers:
Comcast mistakenly published the names, phone numbers, and addresses of nearly 200,000 customers who paid monthly fees to make their numbers unlisted. The names and numbers were made available on Ecolisting, a directory run by Comcast, and picked up by third-party directories. After discovering the mistake, Comcast shut Ecolisting down, gave $100 credits to affected customers, and advised them that they can change their phone numbers at no charge.
This is similar to a mistake in the early 2010s that resulted in Comcast paying a $33 million settlement in 2015.
The Denver Post reported last week:
For years, customers have had the ability to pay a small sum per month to ensure their phone numbers and personal information remain off of telephone and online directories. But in January and February, thousands of people across the country received letters from Xfinity telling them the company had inadvertently published personal information on Comcast's online directory, Ecolisting.com. The issue affected 2 percent of Comcast's 9.9 million voice customers, the company said.
Comcast charged $3.50 a month for the number-privacy feature in Pennsylvania, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. Customers elsewhere apparently paid more—some Comcast users on a support forum reported having to pay $5.50 per month.
In a statement to Ars, Comcast said, "We have corrected this issue for our identified customers, apologized to them for this error, and given them an additional $100 credit. We are working with our customers directly to address this issue and help make it right, and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again."
Related: https://www.techlicious.com/tip/remove-yourself-spokeo-intelius-peoplesmart-mylife/
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 17 2020, @07:53PM (1 child)
Yeah, super-bad ping is... super-bad, and I assume at least part of the time that Comcast flakes on us, it's related to packet delay rather than outright loss.
The ADSL reference was: when both are working well, ADSL tends to have significantly lower ping times (and bandwidth) than Cable internet service. I used ADSL from about 1996 through ~2003, but after cable got their act sort of together and we started streaming Netflix, we switched to cable and have never considered switching back.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Friday March 20 2020, @04:13AM
Personally I'm looking forward to SpaceX's Starlink. I intend to at least try it.. can't be any worse than what I deal with already.
Cable doesn't exist in my area. DSL, either. ADSL or SDSL. ISDN died in the late 90's. Dial up is ... probably more -reliable- than what I've got, but not as good, strange as that is to conceive of. Starlink or bust, I guess?
- D