Comment on Starlink dishes found on Russian military drones after being shot down

• Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Which would mean that every single StarLink system in Ukraine would have to be registered with the Government, even the ones owned by private citizens.

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  • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Why would private ones need to be registered?

    Mobile GPS is artificially disabled above a certain ground speed to prevent them being used as bootleg missile guidance systems.

    Just put a speed limit on Starlink dishes, and then if you want to permit one side to use them simply whitelist those MACs. Perhaps the real reason is that a private company doesn’t want to be seen as choosing sides or maybe there are implications for international rules of war.

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  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Ukraine is under martial law, so privacy rights (especially involving something like MAC addresses which Starlink already has, not to mention that most citizens still in country can’t afford it in the first place) are far down on the list. It’s an unfortunate cost of Russia’s invasion. The Ukrainians have already done similar things with cell-based devices, it’s not some massive undertaking that would be new to them. It’s not like they’d make it front page news, either.

    Really, it’s not even just Ukraine that could do something. Starlink can too, but because maintaining lists has no ROI they won’t until they’re forced.

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