You'll Subscribe to Your Router, Too | The First Router Bribes Are Here

The sale of new routers is effectively banned in the United States. And there are some interesting links as to why that might be the case. The FCC halted the sale of new foreignade consumer router models to the US in the supposed name of national security and in a move that might further consolidate power to the internet service providers. ISPs have moved increasingly to requiring router rentals as part of providing internet, ensuring that you pay every month forever for your router. Not all of them have done this yet, but it's something that we've seen starting to roll out, including for some of the people on our team who have been forced to rent routers. But that's not the only problem here. The US government doesn't seem to have a plan for where we're going to get our routers. Currently, the US doesn't make any, except maybe Starlink, helmed by government contractor and man who cheats at Diablo, Elon Musk, who just so happens to be running ads against stories about how the FCC just banned his competition from the market. The end result is that routers will almost definitely become more expensive. Ironically, security will probably become worse because there'll be fewer newer advancements, less innovation for consumers, and there's also less of a reason to update old models, which are currently the only models that can continue to sell in the US market. Over time, companies naturally update their old products less. Technically, there are ways to get exemptions. Like while we were editing this video, the FCC granted many of Nectar's routers conditional approval after the company spent, you'll never guess it, 560 grand lobbying the US government since 2023. An action with some shady background that seems maybe anti-competitive that we'll look at in this video. As for the US, it hasn't made routers for over 24 years. And the NSA came in just last week to tell everyone to update their routers. Definitely not so they can force push an update to spy on you through them. That is, just to be clear, that is definitely not why the NSA said you should update your routers. That is not the reason. It is not because the NSA wants to be the one with the back door in them. This the Russians or the Chinese or the North Koreans. That's the reason. Most recently, the US indicated that the ban also, to quote the register, quote, extends to portable Wi-Fi hotspot devices that provide internet access almost anywhere. End quote. So, in addition to portable hotspots, which classically might be considered a different type of device from just a router, this could also feasibly include phones under the definition of routers because they can also be hotspots. This regulation has the potential to be so sweeping as to include nearly any device that can connect another device to the internet in some form. Aside from the fact that one of these things basically can be the eye to everything you do on the internet, which would be useful for the government to control, the FCC maintains a covered list of equipment that it deems a security risk. On March 23rd, 2026, it updated its covered list to include, quote, "Routers produced in a foreign country except routers which have been granted a conditional approval by DOW or DHS. " End quote. Virtually all consumer routers are made outside the United States, even those by US-based companies. US residents can keep using existing routers and buying inventory that's already in the country or old product models that companies decide to continue to import. But that'll only go as long as inventory continues to exist and as long as these companies decide to keep selling the old stuff here. As the EFF notes, and we agree, this could make consumers more vulnerable, not less. So, new routers with the newer hardware and software security features and with just better speeds and higher speed ports will without an exemption be banned from import. And existing routers, existing models can continue to be sold, but they'll slowly lose access to updates over time. And likewise, you don't need to look far to see why that matters. ASUS had a severe security vulnerability that turned its routers into a botnet. TPLink was targeted by Russian state sponsored hackers. And Cisco has a running list of security advisories like all these companies, but plenty of them affect routers and networking devices. Being made in the US doesn't magically make these risks disappear. This is all happening after the Trump administration cut a thousand jobs from federal cyber security work. And while the Trump admin is trying to cut cyber security funding weeks ago pitching a $77 million cut to the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency, this would reduce the AY's budget to just $2 billion annually, down from $2. 5 billion last year. To put that into perspective, that's just 2. 8 days of Nvidia's revenue for a quarter spent on the entirety of the federal government's cyber security agency. The NSA urged in the past week for everyone to reboot routers for security updates. comes at a suspicious time when the government is increasingly in bed with companies like Flock, Rain and Palunteer to build what we think is a global surveillance apparatus. This router ban is poised to set the stage for mass surveillance via potential government back doors and mirrors what the US constantly claims China does. State approved vendors going through government selection processes. And all of this is going to affect consumers in a lot of ways. I mean, it'll be obviously options and choice and access to innovation, technology, and generally things getting better, but also security and price. This stuff's probably going to cost more in the US going forward, and that's going to be on older models. So, the move is helmed by none other than FCC chair Brendan Carr, whom we'll talk about in this, and we think companies like Starlink and the ISPs potentially stand to benefit a lot from this action. Before that, this video is brought to you by Thermaltch and the TR200 WS micro chassis, a microATX Stout case. It includes an optional 5 and a quarter bay for either a screen or 5 and a quarter drives. The case has a highly perforated side panel, a color accent front styled like other popular cases, can fit radiators and closed loop liquid coolers in the top up to 360 mm claimed support, and a total of seven 120 mm fan mounting locations between the top, bottom, and rear of the case. Max CPU tower cooler clearance is claimed at 175 millimeters and GPU clearance at 365 millimeters. The chassis provides a portable, highly compatible box for your builds. Learn more at the link in the description below. The FCC explained its

reasoning behind this rash move. The FCC wrote that foreignade routers quote pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of US people. Routers produced abroad were directly implicated in the Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon cyber attacks, which targeted critical American communications, energy, transportation, and water infrastructure. End quote. Now, that might sound like a different cyber attack that we know about called data centers. This was the energy and the water and the but that one's okay because money. There's only one problem with this reasoning, which is that the only reason American routers weren't implicated in these cyber attacks is because there are none. It's that's literally the only reason. The FCC said that it's because the US shouldn't be quote dependent on any outside power for core components necessary to the nation's defense or economy. One of these core components that is necessary to both our nation's defense and economy is routers. Allowing routers produced abroad to dominate the US market creates unacceptable economic, national security, and cyber security risks. End quote. US Representative Molinar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, that's the name of the committee, praised the move and wrote, quote, "Today's tremendous decision by the FCC and the Trump administration protects our country against China's relentless cyber attacks and makes it clear that these devices should be excluded from our critical infrastructure. Routers are key to keeping us all connected, and we cannot allow Chinese technology to be at the center of that. " End quote. Except, first of all, that's the wrong country. A lot of these routers actually come from Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan. A lot of the companies are headquartered in Taiwan. But okay, secondly, this pulls the routers under direct supervision of the US government, and it's really just a different flavor of surveillance at that point, if that's the accusation. At the tip of the spear is FCC chairman and South Park co-star Brendan Carr. Carr was famously mired in controversy around free speech with allegations that he was trying to threaten network broadcasters over what late night talk show hosts had been saying. — So, I hate to say this, but ensuring broadcasters are operating quote in the public interest. I don't believe that means ensuring that no one on TV uh is ever mean to the president or says something the president may not like. — It doesn't help that car was recorded saying things like this. — I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. these companies can find ways to change conduct to take action frankly uh on Kimmel or you know there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. — Carr previously served as an adviser to Ajet Pi former FCC chairman infamous for the repeal of net neutrality. Pi's actions enabled ISPs to throttle block and effectively modulate performance of the internet based on how you used it. And remember ISPs spend millions of dollars lobbying every year. and ISPs benefit from you renting your routers. Back in 2024, the Biden administration considered banning Chinese founded company TP Link, which according to the Wall Street Journal accounts for 65% of home and small business routers in the US. Biden's administration also oversaw the banning of computer cooling manufacturer Deepcool. The US has been relatively banhappy across multiple recent administrations is the point. TP Link was also sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations that it allowed quote the CCP to access American consumers devices. End quote. The Attorney General put out a press release that said quote TPLink's products have been used by the People's Republic of China's PRC's state sponsored hacking entities to launch multiple cyber attack operations against the United States. Further, TPLink's ownership and supply chain are tied to China. Through these ties, TPLink is subject to the PRC's national data laws, which require Chinese citizens and firms to support PRC intelligence services by dulging Americans data. End quote. So, by that logic, apparently, sadly, the difference has become not whether a government has access to your data, but which one and which one you prefer. I will say it's sort of silly to say that TPLink supply chain has ties to China as if that's some big gotcha moment. Like probably basically literally everything in that attorney general's own home has ties to a supply chain somewhere in China. But okay, it's just kind of a broad thing to be like it has ties to that the this MOSFET came from China and the capacitor was China or China adjacent. TPLink was founded in Shenzhen, China, but is now headquartered in California. Its US product manufacturing has been in Vietnam since 2018. The company says it doesn't sell products to mainland China. According to the Times of India, TPLink CEO and his wife have also applied for permanent residency in the United States through Trump's gold card program. We're gonna say bribe, no gift political contribution to gain entry to the country. And that gets to the heart of these bans. The way around it seems to effectively be bribes, sorry, political contributions. The FCC's fact sheet elaborates, quote

"Foreign-Made consumer grade routers are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the US. " This update to the covered list does not prohibit the import, sale, or use of any existing device models the FCC previously authorized. End quote. The FCC also wrote, quote, "All routers authorized for use in the United States may continue to receive software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to US consumers at least until March 1st, 2027. " End quote. So, existing models will remain allowed, but these companies will of course want to move past the existing models to implement things like hardware security features and software security features and just better product features. not just you know RGB routers but maybe like 25 gigabit or something starts to become more popular one day that becomes limited here and uh they won't want to maintain the current models forever especially for patches and updates and so we may fall behind other markets technologically but if they want products made in the US this doesn't do it at some point almost everything comes from China all the way down the supply chain phosphorus Cyber Security and Omnia Research have both spoken into this matter. Router manufacturers can apply for limited 18-month conditional approvals, which requires disclosure of a router's components, origins, production, and supply chain risks. But with this

ruling, we noticed that even the decades old definition of what a router is and what it does is apparently up for debate, not by the companies, but by the US government. Cisco defines a router as a device that quote receives and sends data on computer networks. Routers are sometimes confused with network hubs, modems, or network switches. However, routers can combine the functions of these components and connect with these devices to improve internet access or help create business networks. End quote. Wikipedia narrows it further. Quote, a router is connected to two or more data lines from different IP networks. When a data packet comes in on a line, the router reads the network address information in the packet header to determine the ultimate destination. End quote. We noticed though that the FCC made its definition of routers a lot more open-ended, which allows it to make its bands more open-ended. The FCC describes them as quote consumer grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly internet protocol packets between network systems. End quote. First of all, limiting it to consumer is suspicious. not accurate either. But uh secondly, this is a very broad definition and it's broad enough to encompass things like Wi-Fi extenders or mesh systems, for example. I this even raises the question of whether or not smart TVs or video game consoles or computers could be classified as routers. They could fit this definition. They're capable of forwarding data packets. Beyond the inevitable impacts to consumer pricing and availability of routers, this rule introduces new security risks for consumers. The EFF's affformentioned security concerns stem from entering EOL faster and restricting new imports. Separately, Bit Defender's threat research director pointed out to the New York Times that quote, "A ban has clear limitations. It does not address the large installed base of existing devices which will remain in use for years. In practice, foreign manufactured routers will continue to dominate US households in the near term, so any security gains will be gradual at best. End quote. The FCC is trying to get around this by insinuating that existing routers may not receive security updates beyond March 1st, 2027, but this only exacerbates the issue. For Scout Security told CNNET that quote, "The risk is very real. If you find yourself in a situation where that update pipeline has been switched off, then you definitely have to consider whether you want to keep using that

device. End quote. At a time when a lot of people can barely afford rent or food, updating a device they don't understand for a nebulous security vulnerability they've never heard of to protect against an attacker from a country they can't afford to ever go to is probably pretty low on the list of hierarchical needs. Most normal people won't replace the devices when they stop receiving updates because one, they won't know they stopped receiving updates because they don't update it, just the auto updates. But two, they'll replace it when it stops working. And with the direction we're going, probably with a solution provided by an internet service provider for just $7 a month forever. We think that may be at play here, too, as ISPs are among the top government technology donors and increasingly forcing router rentals. Many modern routers can automatically update their firmware, though. But this ruling doesn't do anything to help us past March 1st, 2027, less than a year from now. The EFF called the FCC's approach a quote blunt instrument end quote that impacts quote many harmless products end quote. and they highlighted the mass quote defunding of cyber defense initiatives end quote. Analyzing the Salt Typhoon hack, which the FCC highlighted as a specific attack while justifying its endeavor to ban foreign made routers, telecom reporter Carl Bode told the Verge, quote, "One of the core problems wasn't foreign routers. It's a lack of oversight and regulation of telecom monopolies. A lot of these monopolies had gotten so lax with their privacy and security standards that they forgot to change default admin passwords on a lot of their routers. End quote. So, color me not surprised when the next attacker walks into a collocation facility and types in admin and shuts down the entire internet. The FCC's move being able to potentially consolidate power into the hands of ISPs is a concerning development at a time when the government is compelling social media companies to hand over information of people who are mean to the government on the internet. Professor Milton Mueller told the register, quote, "A router made in the USA likely runs a Linux kernel maintained by global contributors, uses Wi-Fi drivers written in Taiwan, and incorporates open source libraries managed by developers worldwide. By focusing on the geographic location of the assembly line, the FCC ignores the logical supply chain of the software. A US assembled router with a poorly written UPN or universal plug-and-play implementation is just as vulnerable to a hijacking as a foreign one. End quote. And he's absolutely right on that. The software is a major factor here. In fact, there's open- source solutions that just make a lot of older routers more secure by installing them. The foreign router ban also though introduces conflicts of interest with one specific company at the center of them. Starlink headed up by former extra special government employee world's richest man and offagain onag again presidential bff Elon Musk. Starlink says that its routers are made in Texas. Sometimes they're made in Vietnam but close enough. Starlink makes routers for its satellite internet service, but Musk's close ties to the federal government enable a path to Starlink contracting for consumer routers. Our favorite part, though, was that our research for the story led us to this page on a Reuters story about the ban of foreign routers. We received a Starlink advertisement. It doesn't help that conditional approvals are now supposed to be done by the Department of Defense or the US Department of Homeland Security either. That'll slow down the process, but in our opinions, that also adds additional layers of spyware concerns, specifically relating to the DHS. As a result of this environment, UCLA lead industry analyst Mike Do told the New York Times, quote, "It's very likely that the companies producing these routers will need to pursue waiverss from the FCC's rules. " End quote. When push comes to shove, this may introduce more of an opportunity for basically bribery to bypass. Sorry, let me get the language right. political contributions to bypass the issues and uh companies that already have a cozy relationship with the government which seems to be an increasing pool every day will have an advantage here. Uh and also you know the giving money to them thing but I guess we're kind of all over that now. We're already seeing this though with TPLink's example of a $2 million spend for two gold cards. In a post titled, quote, "Trump cyber security policy is indistinguishable from a foreign attack. " End quote. Vote asserted that the US national security is being dismantled at the request of major telecom lobbyists, stating that the salt typhoon attack was quote caused in part by our mindless deregulation and lacks oversight of telecom monopolies end quote. He added that the Biden FCC tried to address this by implementing quote some very basic cyber security safeguards requiring that telecoms try to do a better job securing their networks and informing their customers of breaches end quote. However, after that Brendan Carr's FCC under Trump rescended these safeguards, quote, because lobbyists said AT& T, Verizon, Comcast, and Charter told them to end quote. In November of 2025, per RS Technica, the FCC voted to repeal a ruling requiring ISPs to secure their networks, saying lobbyists requested it. In an FCC blog post bizarrely titled Halloween Treats, which is a disturbing title for an agency helmed by a man who was accused of trying to silence Epstein files discussions on the air, Carr tried to argue that voting to repeal this ruling would actually somehow bolster the country's security. quote, "We'll stay on public safety and vote on an order that puts us on a stronger cyber security footing. " End quote. He said, "Dropping the ruling allows the agency to be more quote agile. " End quote.

While editing, the FCC revealed many of Nectar's routers have received conditional approvals until at least October 1st, 2027. Necar's lobbying means it's gaining an advantage from regulation, not necessarily from competition. And right now, it has a monopoly on consumer imports for new routers. Nectar has lobbyed the federal government for more corporate protectionism recently. According to open secrets, Ngear started its lobbying efforts in the fourth quarter of 2023 and has spent between 60 and 80 grand every quarter since then. From October to December 2023, Ngeear lobbied the House and the Senate on what it called quote strategic competition with China end quote and cyber security. Netgear subsequently added the DHS, FCC, and Department of Commerce, and the company lobbyed for the Routers Act, which requires the federal government to study quote national security risks posed by consumer routers and modems end quote and present the results to Congress. The bill passed the House and currently resides in the Senate. Nectar later included the National Security Council, Executive Office of the President, and Export Import Bank of the US in its efforts to influence policy. US authorities have increasingly scrutinized Netgear's China based rival TPLink. In March 2025, during a House committee hearing, a former cyber security director for the NSA and an open AI adviser advocated for the US to block TPLink from the US entirely. — August 2024, TPLink captured nearly 80% of the US retail market for mesh systems running on Wi-Fi 7, which is the newest Wi-Fi specification in existence. TPLink routers were among the various brands exploited by Chinese state sponsored hackers in the massive vault flax and salt typhoon attacks. Imagine these routers in the homes and businesses across America as a PRC platform to launch society panic panicking cyber attacks during the invasion of Taiwan. We cannot have this software for prolific devices be written, updated and controlled by a Chinese company. Is there any uh any action the commerce department should utilize uh to take action against TPLink? — Yes, sir. Um Congress has the authority um on a national security basis to block and uh and bar those devices from sale in the US and they I understand they are working on that today and I would encourage everybody to uh to move swiftly and quickly on that action. A month later, Bloomberg reported the US government would investigate TPLink for antitrust violations around pricing alongside national security risk evaluation. Several months later, a bipartisan group of House representatives asked Epstein Island Flyer and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik to investigate TPLink and its connections to China's government. The competition between Netgear and TPLink kept escalating. TPLink actually sued Netgear that same month over its allegations that TPLink had ties to the Chinese government. TPLink alleged that Netgear had launched an quote unlawful smear campaign end quote against them with the legal complaint stating that Netgear had tried to quote capitalize on anti-Chinese sentiment and fear of cyber attacks end quote. TPLink pointed to Netgear CEO stating in an earnings call that quote TPLink is a national security risk. End quote. In the very same call, Netgear also said it would increase its supply if the US excluded TPLink from the market, which felt like sort of a signal to regulators. — The government scrutiny of TPLink as a national security risk has been exposed by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, raising questions about TPLink's ability to continue to participate in the US market. We are monitoring this situation very closely given the hawkishness of the new administration. You know, we are starting to look at uh making a small investment in supply given some of the lead times of our products uh to be in a better position should you know an exclusion actually happen. And as we've talked about before, like if an exclusion were to happen, uh that would require a significant working capital investment. — TPLink clapped back and pointed out Nectar's hardware had also been affected by similar or the same cyber attacks, which TPLink said Neckar quote failed to mention. End quote. In terms of what TPLink is asking for with its lawsuit, the company says that Netgear's misconduct has quote injured and threatens injury to well over a billion dollars in sales end quote and it's seeking damages. To us, it looks like Netgear is trying to posture, at least to the US government, as a US first company despite actually manufacturing predominantly overseas. And it's trying to leverage its position politically to block arrival. That's what we think. Beyond though the obvious of enabling

corporations to collude against consumers, which seems to be a common topic lately with these government tech company collaborations. There are additional concerns, which is the obvious, of potential government back doors in these devices. Devices that have access to just about everything you do on the internet in some capacity, especially at a time when they're working with Palanteer, Flock, Rain, and Nvidia in ways that we think perpetuate surveillance. Routers have the capability of showing significant detail about your online habits. AVG Technologies says, quote, "Someone with access to your router can eavesdrop on you. Since your router handles all the internet traffic on your network, a router hacker can see what you're doing, which websites and services you're using, when you're using them, and more. " End quote. A government, any party, I don't care. Having access to this type of information and the ability to oversee communications creates pathways to exercise authoritarian control and oppression of speech in particular uh or just manipulate algorithms and results to brainwash the public kind of like social media networks already do right now. This kind of reminds us in some ways of China's great firewall as it's called. The US government and its at least claimed position of trying to stop some of the things that it says other countries do is creating a slippery slope where it itself could do those things. 19 states already require age verification such as via government ID to view adult content and moving forward routers may provide a more robust backdoor option. Even basic social media platforms now like Discord are starting to require IDs. And with the resistance to giving government ID up, we wouldn't be surprised if at some point there's a collaborative appearance of a deescalation where say ISPs use a unique identifier, a subscriber ID attached to your packets to identify you that way instead of uploading your ID to some website and it would be seen as an improvement if it goes that direction. But anyway, in an online FAQ posted by the commission, the commission asked itself self, "Are routers intended to be used exclusively in industrial, enterprise, or military contexts covered? " And the commission answered itself, "Sself, no. " The National Security Determination's definition of routers refers to consumer grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. End quote. Routers used by the US government and military are actually already subject to stricter regulations such as the byamerican act which requires federal agencies to prioritize American products. But even that act says this quote the provisions of the act may be waved if the head of the procuring agency determines the act to be inconsistent with the public interests or the cost of acquiring the domestic product is unreasonable. End quote. Interesting. that waiver option isn't in there for you as a consumer. If the cost of the domestic product is unreasonable, then I guess the waiver is uh go yourself. On top of that, there's a lot of evidence to suggest the US government has already spent money on TPLink routers and networking equipment, which as a reminder is the company it was just thinking of banning. In response to the ban, several router companies have put out statements to the press that seemingly try to curry favor with the US government, mostly saying nothing. Now, there's some parallels here to some other interesting bans technically. For example, these are also banned. How did that get in here? In December 2025, the FCC concluded that drones pose quote unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States and to the safety and security of US persons end quote. A direct quote from what they're saying now. Though it made its initial announcement late last year, the FCC only recently provided conditional approvals for four drone systems in March, none of which come from Chinese companies. It just so happens that companies like DJI are among the most competitive right now in the space. Like the routers, the drone situation also introduces conflicts of interest, seeing as how President Trump's sons are both partial owners in Orius Greenway Holdings, a golf club firm that is merging with a drone manufacturer called Power Us. You know, as golf club firms are known to do, manufacture drones. I guess it I kind of feel like this router and drone thing sets the stage for nepotism. No, that can't be it. That's definitely not it.

The key points are these. The ban will lead to decreased innovation and access to technology for American consumers, especially going forward as new technology comes out and becomes available for other markets. The ban will, we think, set up a layup for ISPs to rent their routers to consumers who are looking for an easy solution so that they can then perpetually pay for that device forever. The ban introduces a major conflict of interest favoring Starlink and Elon Musk. The US claims that the concern is of attacks on routers that happen to be made by factories in foreign countries. The reality is that these types of attacks can happen on any router regardless of where they're made. A lot of it also is at the software layer, not the hardware layer. It could be both. But moving it to the US doesn't solve that problem. And actually, it could make it worse and at the very least the short term for companies that have no experience making stuff here and who are trying to cut corners because the costs are so much higher and there's zero supply chain for most of those components in the US. It's also just a delusion to think that any meaningful factory capacity can come online in less than a year in the United States, especially when most of these components are made in China anyway and the routers themselves are assembled often in Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and of course in China. But there's another interesting thing here too, which is that on the software side, there are and have been open- source solutions where you can continue to use old routers with publicly available open-source firmware or software or both and use those devices even past their usable service life from the manufacturer. But what's interesting is that United States laws and in particular opposition to right to repair by large corporations has meant that in some cases router companies will brick their devices if they detect you've installed something like OpenWRT on them, rendering them useless if you try to put something more secure on it because the company has stopped using it. In some ways though, a lot of this stuff isn't news. The FCC was looking at limitations on installing custom firmware and operating systems on routers as early as 11 years ago. Now, various types of bans and corporate collusion and collaboration with governments, it's been around for a long time. A lot of administrations. It's multi-administration, multi-party. It just so happens that right now the set of people in charge in the government and companies seem to get this done real fast. And it's not good for consumers or normal people. It's like a just complete open corruption where even the bribes aren't disguised anymore. Like Tim Apple literally handing Donald Trump a piece of gold and I think it was the Oval Office. So any if you live in the US in particular, you should be concerned about this. uh the boogeymen that are normally described, although you wouldn't want anyone to have access to your data in particular, you know, it's a lot less valuable to other governments than it is to the government that wants to maintain control of a particular narrative. And that's regardless of party. Just my personal bias, full disclosure, my personal belief is that the government of the place you live in is probably one of the greatest threats in terms of controlling communications devices, the roll out of them, and you know, being able to control speech or now with social media platforms more easily than ever manipulate things so that you're served stuff that keeps you kind of brainwashed long term. It's not quite there yet, but it's certainly getting there. Uh but anyway, ideally none of them have your data. It's just that the data is a lot more immediately useful to you know the place you live. Telecom lobbyists have a lot of sway as one of our viewers pointed out when we first reported on this story. Quote, "Enjoy your new Palunteer Freedom Router trademark. " One thing this will definitely impact though is consumer pricing and options availability of new technology. Ultimately, we and say what you want, I don't really care at this point. think that this is a play at control, government and corporate, kind of all the same at this point. But, uh, it could be government oversight and control over the public's communications. It could also be something as innocent and innocuous as serving you better targeted ads because there's a better pipeline to get the information about you. Uh, perhaps on that end, then it could be useful just for making money and taking it from you. Or again, on the other end, could be used for propaganda. Uh either way though, on the scary side, potentially this could be used to track political dissident, people who say meany things on the internet about the government and its people. And this is at a time where, you know, we have to kind of lean into this stuff at this point because the government and the corporations between Flock and Rain, Nvidia, and Palanteer, which we've covered extensively on our GNCA channel if you want to see more of this content, they're making it kind of hard to see it any other way. While that may sound like dystopian science fiction, the US government's official White House app tracks users locations and reportedly presents security risks. Developer and Twitter user, The Realo 1026, claimed that they decompiled the Android version of the app and deduced that it quote has a cookie paywall bypass injector, tracks your GPS every 4. 5 minutes, and loads JavaScript from some guy's GitHub pages. End quote. Atomic Computer reported the iOS version quote sends your IP address, time zone, device model, OS version, session count, session duration, and a persistent unique identifier to one signal on every launch despite the permission strain claiming quote, "This app does not use your location" and sub quote, "and the privacy manifest declaring zero data collection. Only 23% of the app's requests go to white house. gov. The other 77% go to third parties. " End quote. So again, the fact that US government is focusing on just consumer routers with this ban suggests to us that this might be a play at a mix of surveillance and corporate usefulness, not security. Now, there is something you can do if you care about security and surveillance. There are open- source solutions that you should look into for DIY routers, and they're not too hard to put together. For example, OpenWRT and PFSense, which provides patches faster than a lot of the manufacturers do. So, that's it for this one. Thanks for watching. Subscribe for more. We have a lot more stuff coming up. We've got several hardware reviews on the channel lately. Actually, a lot more than the past few months. So, if you want that stuff, it's up there for you. And go to store. gamersac. net to support our upcoming deep dive travel series we have coming up where we're interviewing a lot of companies around the world. Or patreon. com/gamersac. We'll see you all next time.