Richard Stallman3d ago

[1/3] https://gizmodo.com/fcc-bans-all-new-routers-not-made-in-america-2000737176
https://stallman.org/archives/2013-may-aug.html#10_July_2013_(Retired_FISA_Judge_speaks_out_against_secret_courts)

The FCC has banned importation of foreign-made routers, except for models already approved. This addresses a real problem, but the supposed solution addresses only a part of it. When a router is made in a country other than the US, it's possible that that country's government has imposed spyware

FCC Bans All New Routers Not Made in America

Routers the FCC has already approved can still be sold, but further approvals of foreign-made routers will not be issued.

Gizmodo
Show threadRichard Stallman
[2/3] to snoop on Americans - or perhaps only on selected Americans. However, other countries have the same reason to suspect routers made in the US. The US government maintains systematic ways to snoop on everyone, even its own citizens in defiance of its laws and constitution. Perhaps other countries should ban US-made routers as well as China-made routers. But national governments are not the only entities that might make a router manufacturer snoop on users. The company might do this
Apr 9 at 6:23pmWeb
Show threadRichard Stallman3d ago
[3/3] for its own purposes or to sell data. To address this problem thoroughly, governments should insist that routers' software be released under a free/libre license, subject it to systematic analysis looking for security holes, _and_ that the router allow the user to install other software through a method that involves pressing a physical button.