[usbfingers]

I'd love to buy one of these, but I can't get over the potential legal repercussions of running one, especially within ones own home.

In college, I was terrified of even attempting to research drone hacking due to the federal restrictions on tampering with radio signals, especially those outside the range for Wifi 2.4gz. They even still applied to researchers with approval, from what I understood, and it was just considered a gray area.

Can someone please explain how others are so accepting of the risk? Am I missing something? Sorry if it has been addressed and I'm just late to the game.

[qazxcvbnmlp]

Well... if you don’t do anything to upset anyone else, your risks of getting in trouble are pretty low. These just have a bunch of transceivers that operate in ISM bands - which are more a less a free for all in the status quo.

[djrogers]

What exactly do you think you could want to do with this that would be illegal?

[usbfingers]

If the product is anything like the pwnagotchi, many could use this as an alternative to research intercepting / cracking local wifi.

My understanding may be a bit dated, but unauthorized access of any network in the US is a crime. There's exceptions in other countries, but with the potential passive nature of the device, it seems terrifying that you could keep this in a backpack, leave it on when passing a major corp office in the city that cracks their wifi, and get charged with something serious.

Go easy on me if I'm over thinking this or if I've got it all wrong here. I haven't looked into this since around 2013ish, after reading laws regarding hacking non-wifi 2.4ghz radio waves used in drones and RC scared me out of going any further. Also asked a professor who told me basically it's not worth the trouble to even get approval for research.

[tracedddd]

hack the planet, man.

(really, just use responsibly, like any tool. You’re overthinking it)