said by TKJunkMail :

Random road stops are already legal and carried out across the US.

said by TKJunkMail :

Just like with the Vin# burned into every car(and now on many of the parts as well) sold in the US to help track car thieves, we need a system where every device capable of communicating must have a serial number that is burned into the chip and that must communicate that number before access can be given to transfer data.

And every communications capable device being sold would match its serial number or numbers with the name and address of the person buying the device. In effect you would have a national registry matching a person with the devices they own and it could track everytime that device links to a provider network.

Of course, there would be hot, stolen devices - just like there is with cars and guns. But 95% of the devices would be able to be traced back to a specific person. Of course, all the people who think they have a right to privacy will whine, but I never hear them whining about how their car can be tracked back to them.

said by TKJunkMail :

Random road stops are already legal and carried out across the US.

said by gatorkram :

What else do you advocate in protecting the masses from themselves? Mandatory random road stops, you know, just to make sure you aren't breaking any laws.

I already feel so much safer with just the idea of these plans being put into actions.

said by TKJunkMail :

Just like with the Vin# burned into every car(and now on many of the parts as well) sold in the US to help track car thieves, we need a system where every device capable of communicating must have a serial number that is burned into the chip and that must communicate that number before access can be given to transfer data.

And every communications capable device being sold would match its serial number or numbers with the name and address of the person buying the device. In effect you would have a national registry matching a person with the devices they own and it could track everytime that device links to a provider network.

Of course, there would be hot, stolen devices - just like there is with cars and guns. But 95% of the devices would be able to be traced back to a specific person. Of course, all the people who think they have a right to privacy will whine, but I never hear them whining about how their car can be tracked back to them.

said by NormanS :

Never say never...

said by NormanS :

You probably won't get caught as long as you are a parasite on some poor, clueless user's W-LAN. But if he gets suspicious, and has friends who know a thing, or three, all bets are off. Even I could catch you if the owner did not press that reset button; and I am not the smartest network guru in the world.

said by TKJunkMail :

I was thinking about an encrypted serial number that couldn't be forged.

said by Stumbles :

There isn't anything that can't be forged.

said by Anomus :

I set their password so everyone else will stay off. So I am managing their router for them and useing there considerable excess capacity for my own purposes.

said by Nerdtalker :

Perhaps one of the best way to combat this for real big public "hotspots" would be to use a captive portal system that somehow requires users to disclose a real identity. This is hard, but would it be possible to say, run a credit card through and charge a paltry 1 cent?

said by TKJunkMail :

I was thinking about an encrypted serial number that couldn't be forged.

said by raccettura :

This already exists in a way, each network device has a unique MAC address.

1. It can be forged/modified

said by Nerdtalker :

As long as the user is mobile, it will be equally as difficult to keep any user identity identification in place.