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FTC urged to make smart devices say how long they will be supported
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
This sounds like a security nightmare though. A central repository of all code and keys is a gold mine for exploitation. Don’t get me wrong, I would really want this to work, but if it was compromised it could he catastrophic.
I do think there should be regulations in place that are clearly and easily enforceable by the FTC though. I’d love to see companies be hit with fines and/or compulsory refunds if they stop supporting devices and don’t provide some path forward for customers to keep using the device. That doesn’t solve for startups that go out of business, but it would at least cover the tech giants who are doing this garbage.
The government holds loads of confidential information, including keys. It's perfectly fine.
Anything short of the code already existing and being ready to release allows bankruptcy to kill devices and isn't good enough.