floofloofThe FCC decided that all foreign-made consumer-grade Internet routers are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the US.
gwl [he/him]The excuse that it’s for security reasons just immediately falls apart when you get to this part of the article:
The notice from the FCC states that companies can apply for conditional approval for new products from the Department of War or the Department of Homeland Security. However, that requires the businesses to provide a plan for shifting at least some of their manufacturing to the US in order to receive that conditional approval.
So it’s fine to supposedly threaten national security if you do some more manufacturing in the US? Uh-huh. How does that balance out exactly?
I hate to say anything that would defend any of this, but cheap Chinese routers are very prone to security issues. There’s a guy that has a youtube channel built arond taking apart and reverse engineering all kids of electroncis. He’s found some pretty bad stuff in generic routers, static logins, telemetry sent home, remote executable code in the admin portal while not logged in.
I agree there’s a lot more here they hope to gain, and that those gains are their primary objective, but there are some real issues from consumer network electronics.
There’s better ways to do it then, EU don’t have that problem for example, and we buy plenty from China.
We just have safety and security standards enshrined into law, and don’t deal with anyone that doesn’t agree to follow them.
It’s why some products have the C€ symbol on them, which is “this has been imported, and meets all legal requirement”
That’s kinda what’s going on. They’re pulling the FCC logo and making it illegal to resell without authorization. Hopefully, (but not assuredly) part of that authorization will be to make sure they comply with security.
Though I’m absolutely certain those ‘agreements’ cost a pretty penny and it’s lining someone’s pocket as well.
Ah but the C€ don’t require you to manufacture some or all parts in the country though, or to pay a fee for the courtesy of dodging the law
pay a fee for the courtesy of dodging the law
Not that i’d be suprised for it to be so, but conditional approval doesn’t automatically mean pay a fee and we don’t check.
This is America