These popular Wi-Fi routers can detect motion — inside your home

Your Wi-Fi router has one job — to deliver wireless internet throughout your house for all of your smart devices, and that’s about it, right? Well, think again. Some Xfinity routers come with an extremely intrusive upgrade that turns your Wi-Fi into a motion-detecting spy network within the privacy of your own home, and police can access the data.

Believe it or not, Xfinity is actually offering this “feature” as a selling point on its website. Dubbed WiFi Motion, the company says that some of its routers can use the shifting Wi-Fi signal within a home to sense motion and to deliver a push notification to the owner’s device to let them know when someone — either you, a friend, a family member, or an intruder — is in the house.

Any activity that happens on WiFi Motion’s watch could be brought up and used against you in a court of law.

Xfinity stresses that the system doesn’t use cameras or microphones to record visual or audio data. That would be absurd to let that into your home, right? It just weaponizes your Wi-Fi to watch your every move.

On the bright side, Xfinity’s parent company, Comcast, claims not to track or monitor WiFi Motion activity or push notifications. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to worry about.

Don’t commit a crime within WiFi Motion’s walls

Although Xfinity claims it can’t see captured motion or push notifications, it apparently knows enough about your whereabouts to comply with law enforcement. According to the website:

Comcast may be required to disclose information generated by WiFi Motion in response to a valid subpoena, court order, search warrant, or other lawful legal process, as required by law. In limited situations permitted by law, information may be disclosed in connection with legal proceedings, dispute resolution, or emergency situations.

In other words, any activity that happens on WiFi Motion’s watch — activity that takes place within the privacy of your own home — could potentially be brought up and used against you in a court of law.

Be careful what you do when your Wi-Fi is enabled.

RELATED: When did we agree to be watched?

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Wi-Fi-based motion tracking isn’t a new idea

To be candid, Wi-Fi-based motion-sensing technology isn’t anything new. Xfinity is just one of a few companies to actively turn it into a customer-facing feature. The truth is that “Wi-Fi sensing” is a potential side effect of any router that has multiple antennas with Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) compatibility.

The only saving grace is that Wi-Fi sensing is inefficient at best. It relies on the strength of the wireless signal in a room to monitor activity. That means if there’s a dead zone within the home — you probably even know which room or space gets a poor signal in your house — the system has a harder time detecting wave shifts, rendering it useless in those areas. It also requires the user to place stationary devices around the home to help detect signal fluctuations.

In other words, it’s not a very reliable spy, but what it does see can still come back to haunt you if the law takes an interest.

Is your Xfinity router a motion-sensing hub?

WiFi Motion is included with Xfinity WiFi Shield and available as an opt-in option in the Xfinity App for iOS or Android. Depending on how you feel about it, you might be happy to know that there are a few other requirements before it will work.

According to the company, you need an Xfinity Internet subscription, a compatible Xfinity WiFi Gateway, the Xfinity app, and your own connected devices to act as signal receivers. To see if your Xfinity WiFi Gateway (i.e., router) is a potential motion-sensing hub, check out the list:

• Technicolor XB7
• Technicolor XB8
• Technicolor XB9
• Technicolor XB10
• Technicolor MXB1
• Technicolor XER10

For those concerned about the privacy implications of WiFi Motion, rest assured that it can’t do much unless you activate it in the Xfinity App. That said, the fact that the feature may be lying dormant in your router could be enough to convince you to change brands. The choice is yours.

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