California Passes Wi-Fi Guidance Law

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday September 4, 2006 @01:16PM from the he-wants-us-to-think-for-ourselves dept.

MrNonchalant writes, "California's legislature has passed a law requiring Wi-Fi device manufacturers to include warnings about security. From the article: 'From 1 October 2007, manufacturers must place warning labels on all equipment capable of receiving Wi-Fi signals, according to the new state law. These can take the form of box stickers, special notification in setup software, notification during the router setup, or through automatic securing of the connection. One warning sticker must be positioned so that it must be removed by a consumer before the product can be used.'"

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Receive? by dougmc · 2006-09-04 13:28 · Score: 3, Interesting

Lots of gear can `receive' WiFI signals. I've got a cordless phone that uses 2.4 GHz -- it cannot decode WiFi signals, but it certainly can receive the signal. Same goes for a little low power video receiver I've got -- WiFi looks like noise on the screen, but it's clearly receiving the signal. `Receive' certainly is not the proper word.

The law seems like a good idea (or at least the idea is good, even if the fact that it's a law really isn't good), but having laws regarding technology made by people who don't really know the technology involved seems like a bad idea.