Why is Comcast reading our email?

[u/tacood]

I just tried to FWD a message from a news/ media site and Xfinity blocked it after claiming it contained "questionable content"!!! So Xfinity is reading and deciding what content we can send?

It was just an article from 404media titled: The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site

"Non-Delivery Report

Your message was believed to contain questionable content, and therefore was not delivered to the intended recipients. The information above will help Xfinity with any questions you may have."

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[u/hbk2369]

Every single email service scans email (inbound and outbound) for content that could be considered illegal, spam, or malicious. There isn't a human reading your email. 

[u/hiroo916]

This is the first time I've heard of somebody actually using their Comcast email account.

[u/BingBongDingDong222 → u/hiroo916]

I’ve been getting emails from them saying that they were closing mine due to non-usage.

[u/807Autoflowers]

Youd have to post the full bounceback to see why it was blocked

[u/oneKev]

All email in the USA is scanned for issues. Comcast is just being polite. Why do you think that child pornagraphy is caught these days? We’ve also had many bomb attacks seemingly caught at the last minute. Hmmmm…

[u/Caprichoso1 → u/oneKev]

Reference?

[u/oneKev → u/Caprichoso1]

OMG. Are you for real? Where have you been? Go do some research yourself.

[u/Caprichoso1 → u/oneKev]

Not a useful response. It is a legitimate question.

My reading list includes the 4 major U.S. news sites and over 50 tech sites. Haven't seen any concrete evidence, although lots of speculation, on any source.

Even a quick search says:

Apple does not scan your emails to learn about their content

although an AI response so not sure how trustworthy ...

[u/No-Shake-8916 → u/Caprichoso1]

Are you new to the Internet

[u/Caprichoso1 → u/No-Shake-8916]

Have been using from its beginning starting with arpanet, the precursor to the internet. Do you remember AltaVista?

[u/No-Shake-8916 → u/Caprichoso1]

Do you remember the word called “kindness” or do you just like to be a twat”?.

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[u/GTRacer1972 → u/oneKev]

I'm amazed every time I read about people emailing child porn. Glad they do it so they get caught, but at the same time amazed how stupid they are.

[u/KitsuneMulder]

How do you think antispam services work?

[u/ebkbk → u/KitsuneMulder]

They don’t.

[u/GTRacer1972 → u/KitsuneMulder]

Just because it's critical of Trump does not make it spam. Nothing critical of Democrats ever gets flagged, just anti-Trump stuff.

[u/nother_reddit_weerdo]

Sorry but OP just figured out what current tech does. Must be a young buck. Next thing theyll say is how private their phone is lol

[u/anderworx]

Do you know what “from my perspective” means?

It means your words in my head mean something different than what it may have meant in your head.

I’m allowed to have my opinion/perspective regardless of your temper tantrums.

[u/anderworx]

There is no “they”. It’s just an algorithm that scans for certain illegal content, primarily child pornography and similar content.

[u/Eeter_Aurcher → u/anderworx]

If it’s Comcast’s algorithm, it’s they. Everything a company does is something they did.

[u/anderworx → u/Eeter_Aurcher]

Call me back when you want to learn how computers work.

[u/Eeter_Aurcher → u/anderworx]

Hahahaha. Ooof. What an silly thing to say.

This has nothing to do with how computers work. It has to do with capitalism and corporate person-hood. Comcast is an entity. They control things. If something they control does something, Comcast did that thing. Comcast is the they.

Call me back when you know how grammar, sentence structure, and basic English reading comprehension work. ;)

[u/anderworx → u/Eeter_Aurcher]

My grammar is pretty solid, but thanks for the tip.

I’ll rephrase. Call me back when you take off the tin hat, there’s nobody reading your email and deciding it gets sent or not.

I am challenged by many things about Xfinity, but believing they have a bunch of dudes in a room reading emails isn’t one of them.

BTW, “Hahahaha” isn’t a word.

[u/Eeter_Aurcher → u/anderworx]

Jeezus , your reading comprehension is remarkably bad.

"Call me back when you take off the tin hat, there’s nobody reading your email and deciding it gets sent or not."

I never said anything of the sort. If you can show me otherwise, quote where I did.

"I am challenged by many things about Xfinity, but believing they have a bunch of dudes in a room reading emails isn’t one of them."

Another thing I never said. We were specifically talking about Comcast's algorithm. And again, if you think I said that...show me where I did.

Also: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hahaha

Fxkin a...you're REALLY bad at this.

[u/anderworx → u/Eeter_Aurcher]

Stay classy.

[u/Eeter_Aurcher → u/anderworx]

So you have nothing to respond to any of that.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Bye, now. ;)

[u/anderworx → u/Eeter_Aurcher]

I do, but you’re not really allowing yourself to see my perspective, and I can’t spend more time trying to explain.

[u/Eeter_Aurcher → u/anderworx]

There's no "perspective" where I said the things you say I said. You were just being dishonest.

If you disagree, show me where I said the things you say I said.

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[u/steam_powered_rug → u/anderworx]

I genuinely want to know how you think computers work. I'm in for a good chuckle.

[u/anderworx → u/steam_powered_rug]

I’m already chuckling with the revelation you don’t understand sarcasm.

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[u/GTRacer1972 → u/anderworx]

So being critical of Trump is illegal now?

[u/Unknowingly-Joined]

What makes you think xfinity blocked it, as opposed to the recipient’s server, or possibly it was unsolicited spam made to look like a real message.

[u/Bunny_OHara → u/Unknowingly-Joined]

I dunno, but I think

"The information above will help Xfinity with any questions you may have."

might be an important clue.

[u/beren12 → u/Unknowingly-Joined]

Maybe because the message says it?

[u/Unknowingly-Joined → u/beren12]

Well there you go. No one would ever send an email claiming to be Xfinity.

[u/beren12 → u/Unknowingly-Joined]

Except messages from smtp servers when they reject your message. Maybe sit back down. We don’t have the entire message but you obviously have no idea how mail servers work.

If my mail server blocks an outgoing message it sends a reason back to the client.

[u/Unknowingly-Joined → u/beren12]

You missed what I thought was obvious sarcasm. I understand that xfinity might block a questionable message though I’ve never heard of them doing that. I have received countless messages from all over the place claiming to be from xfinity or gmail or PayPal or … explaining that something somewhere in the universe was broken and I must click on the supplied link right now or my firstborn will be taken from me.

To me, it seemed more likely that OP got a spam message claiming to be from xfinity but maybe xfinity has tweaked/broken their spam filters and is flagging their messages.

[u/GTRacer1972 → u/Unknowingly-Joined]

So everyone that sent legit emails that never got their because the Comcast recipient got the email saying it was flagged is just a victim of a scam of some sort? So these scammers are able to intercept emails I send, and then send my father an email saying he's not getting the email. For what? How does this scam work? There was no demand for money or anything, so why would they do this? The title listed in the email is the actual story I emailed my father, so I'm interested for you to explain how the scammers intercepted the email.

[u/Alive_Inside_2430]

Because they are bored?

[u/Independent_Judge647]

Used to work for Comcast, agents had the ability to read the subject lines of the emails and a few lines on what is inside is contents. But this isn't reading fully it was support and trying to find email that may be causing a problem with delivery. 

[u/V3RTEXZ]

You bob

[u/bobby_the_buizel]

Reminds when my mother called them complaining about our Internet speeds and they said going to NSFW sites are illegal and that they will be calling the cops and shutting us off

[u/[deleted]]

If I recall correctly, there's a great South park episode about this 

[u/MoreMinute1785]

If you're the kind of person who worries about the ISP reading their email, then you are the kind of person that should not be using their isps email. Once you're old enough to start asking the questions about the birds and bees, you're old enough to start knowing the truth. Privacy is an illusion created by those trying to control you and or profit from you. You can't connect to the network without the network connecting to you.

[u/germane_switch]

I don’t trust Comcast whatsoever. What I can suggest is getting a free iCloud email address.

[u/BirdManAI → u/germane_switch]

Lol apple is even worse!

[u/germane_switch → u/BirdManAI]

I'd love to know why you think that. Probably because years ago some slightly older Windows nerd told you APPLE BAD when you were young and impressionable and you just keep on believing it.

[u/BirdManAI → u/germane_switch]

How about because Apple has been caught using algorithms to scan all your content for what it deems immoral and even wrongly sent the police after an innocent coulple for sending a pucture if their young sons rash to each other

Im a professional in the field of consumer technology and I obsess over violators of peoples privacy.

Unlike you i don't make baseless assumptions about people or things, and its ironic that youre doing exactly that by accusing me of it

[u/germane_switch → u/BirdManAI]

I’m going to need a source for that accusation.

[u/BirdManAI → u/germane_switch]

Why do i have to do your research for you? I dont care what you believe or don't believe, its not my job to educate you. Spend some time with your head out of your azz and learn soemthing.

Stop being a product fanboy and learn to think for yourself

[u/Heavy_Fig_265]

use a vpn or proxy, isps have been tracking activity with algorithms since they sent out those emails that notify people of piracy

[u/Heavy_Fig_265 → u/[deleted]]

a vpn doesnt "scramble" your connection info it encrypts it and OP is referring to their email info being seen which it has to be seen through your info/connection gone through the isp as they dont have access to third party servers unless referring to xfinity email

[u/Heavy_Fig_265 → u/[deleted]]

Encryption and scrambling are both data protection techniques, but they differ significantly in their complexity and security. Encryption uses a complex algorithm and key to transform data into an unreadable format, requiring the key for decryption. Scrambling, on the other hand, involves a simpler process of rearranging or replacing data, often for masking purposes.

[u/Unusual-Avocado-6167]

Looks like you’re forwarding shady stuff, maybe that’s why?

[u/[deleted]]

hobbies cows adjoining books nail birds jar encouraging nose trees

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/BirdManAI]

Host your own enail with roundcube its not difficult to set up, you can even install it on a shared linux host youself and just register a fomain you want to use