Whilst I agree with people that there could be privacy implications in some scenarios, this is already done in the USA to monitor usage of drugs. In kind, New Zealand has found monitoring where Covid-19 may be in the community very valuable in its Covid-19 response.
A decent write up on how New Zealand uses this can be found at: https://www.health.govt.nz/our...

1) If you do not need a mobile phone, do not carry one.

2) If you need a mobile phone, make sure it is not a smart phone.

3) If you must have a smart phone, turn off wifi, turn off location services, remove the microphone, and remove the camera.

I just stay out of Washington DC, and do not watch hockey on television.

Great points AC. I am only a sample on one, which can be dangerous but I notice the following:

Age Diversity - It may as well be the sixties in SV. The mantra could be "do not trust anyone over 30". If you are 50, good luck getting a job.

Ideological Diversity / Republicans / Democrats - A lot of Libertarians, and Democrats.

Religious - What religion? Most seem to be atheist or agnostic.

SV is not a very diverse place in my opinion.

I do not find the racial and sex mixture for Silicone Valley to be odd considering the following factors. I am not saying these are good things, but they are the big influences IMO:

1) Privilege and Opportunity - It has been my experience that many of these people either grew up in a solidly middle class or upper middle class environment. A good education was available for them from birth, right through to university. This education makes a big difference.

2) Birds of a Feather Flock Together - People often associate themselves with others who are like-minded, and similar in a number of characteristics. This could even include race.

3) Females & Sciences - Women in general are under-represented in the sciences, especially within IT. IT has built itself a nice little sausagefest.

Having noted all of the above, SV is getting more diverse now by giving the high paying jobs to people with H1B Visas. I am not so sure this is a good thing. It would be awesome if the USA can get more opportunities for its current population.

DMCA is used far too often for things that do not make sense. The only people that really profit from it all is the lawyers, especially in a case like this where there is evidence of prior art.

Shame on Fox. Shame on MPAA. Shame on RIAA. Shame on all of the Congress critters for creating this legal pile of excrement.

Organisations publish their APIs, because that want people to use them.

Sun was making a huge push on this in the early 2000s. IMO Larry Page is spot on with this.

Tavis Ormandy is bad ass, and is really awesome at finding bugs. Whether it is Microsoft, Symantec, or anything else, he will find a bug if one is there.

This is a beautiful bug! Having the scan engine loaded into the kernel is sheer lunacy. Yet even more evidence on why AntiVirus is a useless and dangerous program to have running on your system.

John McAfee is doing everything he can to and and be relevant in today's society, apart from actually creating anything and doing something productive.

* He is a failed Libertarian candidate for President
* He failed to decrypt iPhones for the FBI although he said he can do it.
* He failed in decrypting whatsapp.
* The software he originally wrote is a failed idea. (Who ever thought A/V signatures were a good idea other than a mad man.)

It is too bad he could not move back to South America since he is now a known fraud and dog killer.

If everyone realises that wide spread abuse is going on, then why the hell do they allow the practice to continue? I am not generally one who bashes big business and the tech giants, but give me a break. Create a points system for bringing new people in with the right skills and education, and make sure they are paid a similar wage, so that local wages do not reduce rapidly.

I certainly hope that the FCC does not begin enforcing this with fines and threatened jail time. Having the ability to install new firmware can improve the security of the device.

Another thing to consider is that 2.4g is pretty much open game. You have to accept any interference that comes along in this frequency range due to its designation. The FCC should not care so much, as long as no one is putting out so much power that they are cooking meat.

Although some may bristle and think this will cause a slow down of business, I disagree. It may make for a more efficient business with well-rested, lower stress employees.

I have seen so many e-mails sent overnight and in the wee hours of the morning from people that want to be seen as working extra time. It is kind of like the days of face time with the boss in the UK. You always leave after the boss leaves, so that it looks like you are a worker.

The end result is that many of these electronics are getting recycled, just overseas. One can make a sound argument for the health of the workers due to toxins, but lets face the fact the working conditions in some nations are lackluster. Remember employees making iphones killing themselves, and the sweat shops in India and Vietnam for clothing and shoes?

I am not arguing that these people do not deserve better conditions, but think it is important to note that recycling is occurring, and some people are getting to work to feed themselves and their families.

I would not assume that NK is 20 years behind, especially on their hacking ability. They have been sending teams of people to exploitation training.

NK does have some interesting things to hack into as well. The western world is interested in the DPRK's nuclear program, and it would not be surprising if a 'Stuxnet-like' application was used at some point to affect their operations as done in Iran.
 

Although your point is well taken, there other other things to consider.

Mobile devices often go unpatched due to the relationship between the carriers and the manufacturer. For example, you may buy a nice shiny Samsung, only to find out that it is not patched for the StageFright bug since the carrier has not vetted these patches yet. This is exacerbated when you bring your own phone over to the network, as they may not even know anything about what patch would work on your device.

The exceptions to this include Apple and the Google Nexus phones. These phones seem to get patches, even without the carrier's involvement. However, if you have a generic Android phone, good luck.

Now to the bugs that are not patched by the manufacturer...it makes sense to hold manufacturers feet to the fire as these devices contain a lot of valuable information for the user. (and the attacker for that matter.)