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FCC: Ban on Foreign-Made Robots Includes Robot Vacuums

pcmag.com

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Re: FCC: Ban on Foreign-Made Robots Includes Robot Vacuums

#21

Post by RantyDave »

sockaddr wrote: post #5
bashtoni wrote: post #4

Nothing says land of the free like being told you're not allowed to buy good cars or good vacuums.

Quit being naive. It is a legitimate security issue. Imagine telling someone 50 years ago we would have a new peer adversary and we’d allow them to sell us robots that roam our homes and offices with microphones and cameras. You’d seem crazy. I know it’s inconvenient and on a 1-pass thought pattern it seems oppressive, but in the long term it is better to rip this bandaid off. Same with the routers. This is the ONLY…

I'd like to disagree but can't. Letting a foreign power "sell" internet connected microphones and cameras into "our" homes is totally asking for it. I wonder what the rules are around security cameras and similar?

Not sure I mind the routers so much. By the time the traffic is traversing the router it had better be encrypted. OTOH an army of domestic routers can at the very least be made into a quite astounding botnet and if we were to dig deeper I'm sure the data around which hardware address comes online and when could be made extremely useful.

In short: you're right. It's not protectionist bullshit, it's a wide variety of reasonable concerns. It also might be a horse that's bolted.

Re: FCC: Ban on Foreign-Made Robots Includes Robot Vacuums

#22

Post by nulld3v »

RantyDave wrote: post #21
sockaddr wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quit being naive. It is a legitimate security issue. Imagine telling someone 50 years ago we would have a new peer adversary and we’d allow them to sell us robots that roam our homes and offices with microphones and cameras. You’d seem crazy. I know it’s inconvenient and on a 1-pass thought pattern it seems oppressive, but in the long term it is better to rip this bandaid off. Same with the routers. This is the ONLY…

I'd like to disagree but can't. Letting a foreign power "sell" internet connected microphones and cameras into "our" homes is totally asking for it. I wonder what the rules are around security cameras and similar? Not sure I mind the routers so much. By the time the traffic is traversing the router it had better be encrypted. OTOH an army of domestic routers can at the very least be made into a quite astounding botne…

I agree it's an issue but maybe we are going at it from the wrong angle. Why just be scared of the Chinese? We should protect ourselves from both domestic & foreign adversaries.

Any electronic device with vision, sound, or radio communications capability should be required to be source-available or at least independently audited. Proprietary code must run in sandboxed black-boxes that can't directly communicate/interact with the outside world.

Sounds like an impossible ask? Well, banning Chinese robots/routers is also an impossible ask.

Re: FCC: Ban on Foreign-Made Robots Includes Robot Vacuums

#24

Post by [deleted] »

jersmtpd wrote: post #2

> However, the US ban only covers new advanced robot models, not existing products that have already received FCC equipment authorization for sale in the US. The "action does not impact a consumer’s continued use of devices they previously acquired," the FCC says. "Nor does it prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market relevant models approved previously.” Exactly what I was wondering about.

[deleted]

Re: FCC: Ban on Foreign-Made Robots Includes Robot Vacuums

#26

Post by genxy »

valleyer wrote: post #15
hakfoo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the FCC is a convenient source of rubber stamps for the administration.

It seems so. But why here? The president has the power to ban imports for security reasons; unlike many of his tariffs, a narrow ban like that would likely hold up in court, as long as it were accompanied by some made-up justification.

Because they are also incredibly stupid.
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