Tech
Technology in this category is the consumer-facing kind: the caller-ID rules that decide whether your phone rings, how an impersonation scam is built, what a regulator can and cannot require of a carrier. It is not gadget coverage and it carries no reviews or buying advice. The material comes from the federal agencies that write, enforce or run the rules and systems in question — most often the FCC and the FTC — which means the pieces can explain what is required of a company rather than guess at it, and can say plainly where a rule stops. Consumer technology is unusual in that the useful knowledge is often legal rather than technical — the question is less how a system works than who may do what with it, and what recourse exists when someone does not. That is the angle taken here.
- Home Network Security: What Each Setting Covers
How the FTC and CISA describe home routers, Wi-Fi passwords, encryption, cameras, voice assistants, firewalls, and software updates.
- How Wireless Emergency Alerts Reach Mobile Phones
Who sends Wireless Emergency Alerts, how FEMA's IPAWS routes them to carriers, the five alert types, and which ones a subscriber may turn off.
- Public Wi-Fi Safety and What Encryption Covers
The FTC says public Wi-Fi is usually safe because most websites encrypt data in transit. What the lock symbol covers, and what it does not.
- Robocall Rules, Spoofing, and Why Calls Still Get Through
What federal rules require for robocalls, texts and caller ID, what carriers must authenticate, and why unwanted calls still reach your phone.
- Government Impersonation Scams: How to Spot a Fake Call
How IRS, Medicare, and other government impersonation scams work, and the signs that separate a real agency contact from a fake one.