this is both disappointing and unsurprising. i do wonder if thereās a secret order from a fisa court stimulating this though.
The government doesnāt like Tor. Comcast blocks it in return forā¦?
I thought all the three-letter-agencies used Tor. I mean, not that I would know, but isnāt that the scuttlebutt? Woe be unto the field agent embedded in a work environment with Comcast as the ISP.
Furthermore, hereās another denial from Comcast. I hate 'em as much as the next guy, but in my experience they donāt really bother you if you donāt bother them. (I say this as a guy who runs a web and SMTP server at home on my Comcast connection, use ssh and sometimes shove gigs through it daily, and used to run a Tor relay for a few months a year ago.)
If Comcast does not monitor its usersā browsing, then how does the copyright alert system work? Are they providing their customersā browsing data to a third party?
Well thatās just metadata. They donāt actually watch the movie with you.
As for TOR, thereās no way to distinguish one encrypted packet from another except by the metadata. So they probably have a list of TOR nodes, and notice whoās talking to them. Also, if I recall, arenāt TOR packets routed through multiple nodes? That would be pretty easy to detect.
And more of the same through Ars:
Comcast calls rumor that it disconnects Tor users āwildly inaccurateā
Ars is doing a little checking of its own, and is finding the story dubious so far. Iād call this particular news item a bit of a crock.
But I want them to. Iām lonely and I made way too much popcorn. Also Iām a bit cold. Can they snuggle right up next to me?
Days like this, I am thankful that I no longer live in a city in which I am forced to deal with Comcast. They can go straight to hell.
I call BS. I run an exit node FFS, and I notified them Iād be doing so. They reminded me of the ToS section regarding servers, thanked me for notice, and asked what email they could forward abuse complaints too.
If this were a new corp policy, they doubtless would have gotten hold of me by now.
Well, the story is based on an interaction with a CSR. The CSR could just have been full of shit.
But it scores so high on the truthiness index.
Honestly, even if it isnāt it true, I want Comcast to know exactly what it would feel like if it were true.
And as always, remember! It doesnāt count as a freedom of speech violation if a private entity does it! Itās a pat little loophole that pretty much explains why the right wingers loooove business so much.
Well, at least one ā the NRL ā is credited for inventing it.
True. Equally so could the ācustomersā in the story have been. Itās all pretty much hearsay so far.
Iāve seen some discussion on sites like /., and I think the hyperbole is high with this oneā¦ Iām thinking āCSR makes a statement and it spirals viral to the land of BSā for the time being.
Remember, BB is a blog site, not a news site 
I initially believed the story - as others say, it has a high ātruthinessā level in re Comcast. But I dug into it a bit - I couldnāt find the reddit/r/darknetmarkets post which was alleged to be the source, only secondary reports. Ditto on reddit/r/tor, and other appropriate fora.
I have Comcast. Last night I fired up Tor, and did a bit of random websurfing - no sign of blockage.
Assuming the alleged call did happen, my suspicion is that the alleged ācustomer repā may have been a fake engaged in a social engineering attack, since he seemed anxious to get the callee to 'fess up to which sites heād been accessing with Tor. Perhaps a clueless LEO or PI.
The denials Iāve seen from Comcast seem (for once) to be sincere.
Yeah, the āquoteā from the CSR obviously isnāt; this could all be a stupid misunderstanding on one or more peopleās parts, assuming the story is ātrueā (in the sense of actually being based on real interactions between customer and CSR) and not just a random fabrication.
Exactly. I look at it this way: from what Iāve been seeing (Iām not American, so I have no direct experience), Comcast has done enough that can be substantiated enough to hoist them on their own petard that stories based on hearsay are really unnecessary.
