Law & Disorder / Civilization & Discontents  Would you give the
government remote control over your router?  Proposed “emergency
switch” would turn private routers into public resource.
Researchers want to use your wireless router to improve wireless
communication abilities of emergency responders.    The
residents’ wireless traffic would still remain private, in
theory. Wireless routers already support a technology that might
make the idea feasible—the creation of guest networks that home
owners can use to grant visitors access to the Internet. But the
proposal—laid out in a new paper in the peer-reviewed
International Journal of Mobile Network Design and
Innovation—suggests allowing public safety officials the right
to remotely activate an emergency mode making similar guest
access available to them. The paper is also described in a press
release titled “Your wireless router could save lives in an
emergency.”  The paper acknowledges privacy and security
concerns, although just how abuse can be prevented is