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Submission + - Non-US made WiFi Routers Banned by FCC (pcmag.com)

Submitted by phatrabt
phatrabt writes: The FCC has now banned any WiFi routers not made in the US from being sold unless granted a waiver from the Pentagon or Homeland Security. PC Mag says:

"Late on Monday afternoon, the FCC announced the order, based on a White House determination that foreign-made routers introduce “supply chain vulnerabilities” that hackers and cyberspies can exploit. Specifically, the commission updated its “covered list,” which acts as a blacklist of telecom equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to US national security. It now includes “all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries.”

However, the FCC stresses, “This action does not affect any previously purchased consumer-grade routers. Consumers can continue to use any router they have already lawfully purchased or acquired.”

“Nor does it prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market router models approved previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process,” the commission adds.

Submission + - In hilarious move, FCC bans all new routers (fcc.gov)

Submitted by TheNameOfNick
TheNameOfNick writes: The FCC has just banned new router models, expect for models entirely made in the US from parts made in the US and running software made in the US. Models which fit the exemption do not exist. The press release states: "New devices on the Covered List, such as foreign-made consumer-grade routers, are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the U.S."

Submission + - Peter Thiel just bet $2 billion on a collar that wraps around a cow's neck (x.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The company is called Halter and it has a proprietary algorithm that runs the entire operation.

They actually trademarked the name for it and called it the Cowgorithm and here's how it works.

A farmer opens an app, taps a button, and 600,000 cows across three countries start walking toward the milking station on their own.

No farm dogs, fences or physical labor, it's just a solar-powered GPS collar sending sound and vibration cues to each animal.

The collar does more than move cows around.

It monitors digestion, fertility cycles, and health patterns in real time, 24 hours a day, using machine learning trained on the behavior of hundreds of thousands of animals.

Submission + - Nissan Leaf drivers voice anger over app shutdown (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Alain Williams
Alain Williams writes: Owners of some Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are angry after the carmaker announced it would shut down an app that lets them remotely control battery charging and other functions.

Drivers of Leaf cars made before May 2019 and the e-NV200 van (produced until 2022) have been told that the NissanConnect EV app linked to their vehicles will “cease operation” from 30 March. This means they will lose remote services, including turning on the heating, and some map features.

Experts said they expected other drivers to experience similar problems in future as “connected cars” – vehicles that can connect to the internet – get older.

Submission + - r/linux poster unearths Meta's lobbying net behind OS Age Verfication blitz (archive.org)

Submitted by He Who Has No Name
He Who Has No Name writes: In an incredibly in-depth researched post that was removed by Reddit mods almost as soon as it went up but is preserved at Archive.org, Reddit user Ok_Lingonberry3296 has dug deep into lobbying activity and records across multiple states and at the federal level to unearth what — or who — is behind the nationwide state-level and federal legislation blitz of nearly identical age verification laws targeting operating systems instead of companies — with no carveout for open source, no awareness of how these centralized control models break when applied to a FOSS operating system like Linux, and no apparent regard for the avalanche of second order effects the legislation could cause in contexts like embedded devices, VMs, and data centers.

The culprit that emerges isn't a huge surprise: a recently created lobbying org called the Digital Childhood Alliance, which appears to be functionally a front group for the lobbying efforts of... (drumroll) ...Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, formerly Facebook.

Ok_Lingonberry3296 writes: "...Rep. Kim Carver (R-Bossier City), the sponsor of Louisiana's HB-570, publicly confirmed that a Meta lobbyist brought the legislative language directly to her. The bill as drafted required only app stores (Apple, Google) to verify user ages. It did not require social media platforms to do anything.

...Senator Jay Morris, who expanded the bill to include app developers alongside app stores after Google's senior director of government affairs publicly questioned why "Mark Zuckerberg is so keen on passing these bills." When Morris introduced his amendment, Meta went silent. The conference committee compromise maintained dual responsibility but kept the primary burden on app stores, which is what Meta wanted from the start.

At that same Senate hearing, Morris directly questioned DCA Executive Director Casey Stefanski about who funds her organization. She reportedly deflected, said she "wasn't comfortable answering," then under continued pressure admitted tech companies provide funding but refused to name them."

The research gets into funding, connected groups (on both sides of the political aisle) involved with lobbying, messaging, funding, and other parts of the legislative push, and most of all, tracks the money.

For those that want to dig into the research itself, OK_Lingonberry3296 posted their entire folder of research and sources on github, here: github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

A quick synopsis of where the US laws currently stand:

CA | AB-1043 | Enacted, effective Jan 1, 2027
CO | SB26-051 | Passed Senate, in House committee
LA | HB-570 | Enacted, effective July 1, 2026
UT | SB-142 | Enacted, first in nation
TX | SB-2420 | Enjoined by federal judge
NY | S8102A | Pending
IL | HB-3304, HB-4140, SB-2037 | Pending
Federal | KOSA, ASAA | Pending

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