Monthly Archives: September 2014

Tor Project

Comcast has lately found itself issuing public apologies on a somewhat regular basisas subscribers share tales of horrible customer service.

But the latest accusation leveled against Comcastthat it is threatening to disconnectcustomers who use the anonymity-providing Tor browserhasn't been backed by convincing evidence that it's happening. And Comcast dismisses the rumor as wildly inaccurate.

It began Saturday with a site called DeepDotWeb claiming that Comcast has declared war on Tor Browser.

Reports have surfaced (Via /r/darknetmarkets and another one submitted to us) that Comcast agents have contacted customers using Tor and instructed them to stop using the browser or risk termination of service, the article said. A Comcast agent named Jeremy allegedly called Tor an illegal service. The Comcast agent told its customer that such activity is against usage policies. The Comcast agent then repeatedly asked the customer to tell him what sites he was accessing on the Tor browser. The customer refused to answer. The next day the customer called Comcast and spoke to another agent named Kelly who reiterated that Comcast does not want its customers using Tor.

Kelly allegedly told the customer that Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the Internet, are usually doing things that arent so-to-speak legal. We have the right to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at anytime due to you violating the rules.

There was good reason to be skeptical of this report. A search of the subreddit /r/darknetmarketsfor Comcast and Tor turned up nothing. (UPDATE: Here is the reddit post quoted by DeepDotWeb.) Any organized Comcast campaign againstusers of Tor wouldlikely inspire numerouscustomer complaints, not just a few, as noted by Cato Institute SeniorFellow Julian Sanchez and security researcher Robert Graham, who wrote on Twitter:

"This story is wildly inaccurate," Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas told Ars. "Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website or use it however they wish otherwise."

While Comcast publishes an acceptable use policy, the company "doesnt monitor users browser software or Web surfing and has no program addressing the Tor browser," Douglas said.

In some previous cases where customers have documented poor customer service, Comcast has admitted fault and said its customer service agents acted in error. In this case, Comcast says it investigated the story and found no evidence that the encounters everhappened.

Originally posted here:
Comcast calls rumor that it disconnects Tor users wildly inaccurate

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Comcast completely denies their claims. In a blog post, the company said "We have no policy against Tor, or any other browser or software. Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website, use any app, and so forth."

According to a report on Deepdotweb, Comcast customer representatives have branded Tor "illegal" and told customers that using it is against the company's policies.

Tor is a type of web browser that, in theory, makes all your internet activity private. The software routes traffic through a series of other connected internet users, making it difficult for governments and private companies to monitor your internet usage. Up to 1.2 million people use the browser, which became especially popular after Edward Snowden leaked information showing that the NSA was eavesdropping on ordinary citizens. Prior to that, Tor had been popular among people transacting business on Silk Road, the online market for drugs and hitmen.

The problem is that downloading or using Tor itself isn't illegal. Plenty of people might have legitimate reasons to want to surf the web in private, without letting others know what they were looking at. But Tor has been pretty popular with criminals.

Some Comcast reps allegedly begun telling users that it is an "illegal service." One Comcast representative, identified only as Kelly, warned a customer over his use of Tor software, DeepDotWeb reports:

Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the internet, are usually doing things that arent so-to-speak legal. We have the right to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at anytime due to you violating the rules. Do you have any other questions? Thank you for contacting Comcast, have a great day.

Comcast customers, speaking to Deepdotweb, claimed that Comcast repeatedly asked them which sites they were accessing using Tor.

In a statement to Business Insider, Comcast refuted the claims made in Deepdotweb, stating that they had launched an internal review into the discussions reported above:

Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website or use it however they wish otherwise.Like virtually all ISPs, Comcast has an acceptable use policy or AUP that outlines appropriate and inappropriate uses of the service.Comcast doesnt monitor users browser software or web surfing and has no program addressing the Tor browser.he anecdotal chat room evidence provided is not consistent with our agents messages and is not accurate. Per our own internal review, we have found no evidence that these conversations took place, nor do we employ a Security Assurance team member named Kelly.Tors own FAQs clearly state: 'File sharing (peer-to-peer/P2P) is widely unwanted on Tor' and 'BitTorrent is NOT anonymous' on Tor.

See original here:
Comcast Denies It Will Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals (CMCSA)

In the last 24 hours, Comcast has been embroiled in a minor controversy concerning countless subscribers who use Tor, the traffic-anonymizing service designed to hide your Web activity from would-be snoops. According to a report on a Web site known as Deep Dot Web, Comcast has"declared war" oncustomers who use Tor and is threatening to disconnect their service overa perfectly legitimate activity. Not surprisingly, the accusations have thrown Internet users many of whom are already predisposed to dislike Comcast into an uproar.

But don't buy what Deep Dot Web is selling. Comcast is denying the accusations, of course, but the claims are also being rejected by Tor users themselves. Between the unambiguousdenunciations coming from Comcast and the thinly-sourced nature of Deep Dot Web's report, it isn't likely that Comcast is doing anything nefarious here.

Citing anonymous sources on a relatively obscure redditpageand at least one complaint shared withDeep Dot Web directly, the report accuses Comcast of telling customers that Tor is an"illegal service" that violates the company's acceptable use policy. Failure to terminate Tor usage, these service reps say, would result in the termination of Comcast service, according to Deep Dot Web.

If you've never used Tor, the service has one basic function: to hide your browsing habits from prying eyes. When using the Tor browser a specially modified version of Firefox your traffic doesn't go directly to its destination, but instead gets bounced across multiple intermediaries. When it comes out the other side and continues on, it's almost impossible to tell where (and from whom) the traffic originated. Not even the NSA has figured out how to crack the core Tor infrastructure (as far as we know.)

What Deep Dot Web is implying is that Comcast is monitoring people who use this service and singling them out for special treatment. It's significant not only because these are serious charges, but because it recalls a similar case resolved in 2008 concerning Comcast's throttling of peer-to-peer filesharing services. Back then, the FCC said that Comcast was violating net neutralityby taking action against BitTorrent traffic. Although the incident led an appeals court to rulein Comcast's favor, itkicked off a debate over net neutrality that continues today.

Unlike the BitTorrent case, it doesn't appear that the Comcast actions against Tor are widespread, if they're happening at all. On Monday, the company categoricallydeniedmonitoring what users do on its network.

"The report may havegenerated a lot of clicks, but is totally inaccurate," Comcast exec Jason Livingood wrote in a blog post. "Comcast is not asking customers to stop using Tor, or any otherbrowser for that matter."

Livingood added that he is an occasional Tor user himself.

A Comcast spokesman clarified to The WashingtonPost that "termination is not a policypost-BitTorrent, we've been very consistent and clear there's no application or service or any website or protocol that our customers cannot use with their Comcast Internet service."

There are good reasons to be skeptical of Comcast, particularly when the company has itself acknowledged its poor record on customer service. Bashing Comcast is easy and popular, which may be one reason Deep Dot Web's report rose so quickly to the top of reddit Monday morning. (The report is now nowhere to be found on reddit'sfront page.)

Here is the original post:
Why a thinly sourced, unverified report about Comcast has the Web in an uproar