It seems that owners of Cisco and Linksys home routers got a rather invasive surprise this holiday season. Cisco pushed out an update to their routers which requires users to use the Cisco Cloud service to log in to their routers. According to Boing Boing, the routers lock the users out and only lets them have access back if they agree to the new terms of service permitting Cisco to essentially spy on them.
While many companies have monetized users as data and as a product, this push by Cisco to sell information out their personal router users seems to be a bit invasive and reminiscent of something we would hear of happening in China. However, this is the US and the article goes on to mention that “The current policy also allows Cisco to discontinue your access to your router if you download pornography, or if someone complains about you, without a court order, evidence or a chance to state your case and face your accuser. ”
This type of policy is definitely unconstitutional and smacks of Big Brother in a direct and unfettered manner. Last time we checked, we were protected from unreasonable search and seizure by the constitution. Did Cisco, not get the memo on this, or have they become their own country suddenly?
In light of this, we here at A.P.P.L.E. have removed all Cisco and Linksys devices from our networks, exchanging them for routers from Planet Technology
Source: BoingBoing
