Comcast Facing Class-Action Lawsuit Over WiFi Hotspots

Earlier this year, Comcast caught public attention with its home-based WiFi Hotspot network, which utilizes some subscribers' hardware to broadcast a second WiFi signal for other Comcast subscribers to use. As Comcast told us back in June, this secondary usage is tied to the user's own account, not the home subscriber's account. Many still have issues with the feature, however, and now Comcast is facing a class-action lawsuit over it.

Comcast users Joycelyn Harris and Toyer Grear have had a class-action lawsuit filed on their behalf in the US District Court in San Francisco. According to the lawsuit, the service provider's use of their home router as part of its hotspot network is "exploiting them for profit".

The lawsuit is claiming a few different issues with the hotspot feature, including that it costs subscribers more in terms of electricity usage, particularly when it is being heavily used, pushing the electricity bills needed to run Comcast's hotspot network onto its subscribers.

Data security is another cited concern, with the lawsuit saying that the subscribers' data "is at greater risk" when strangers are allowed to connect using the same router as the home owner. Of course, subscribers are able to disable the hotspot feature, but the lawsuit takes issue with Comcast allegedly turning the signals on without permission.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicles