Illustration: Stuart Briers

WiMedia, the next generation of wireless connectivity, is raising some interesting questions about privacy. WiMedia, which underlies consumer technologies such as Certified Wireless USB and the planned next iteration of Bluetooth, is based on the concept of ultrawideband radio. It uses short-range, very-low-power signals transmitted across a vast expanse of the radio spectrum—from 3.1 gigahertz to 10.6 GHz. Traditional radio, on the other hand, uses a much higher-power signal across a narrow band of spectrum.

In the United States, the authority to regulate use of the radio spectrum falls to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). U.S. courts have consistently ruled that the federal government has the power to regulate the airwaves, because radio is interstate commerce. But can the FCC really claim jurisdiction over the minuscule power levels used by WiMedia radios?

The answer to that question is important because the FCC restricts what radio broadcasters, whether licensed (as in the case of radio or TV stations) or unlicensed (as in the case of the millions of people who own Wi-Fi base stations), can do. On many licensed radio services, encryption is not allowed, as a condition of licensing. Amateur radio operators, for example, have never been allowed to send encrypted traffic; they would lose their licenses if they did.

In contrast, concerned that users be able to trust their new wireless systems, the coalition of electronics companies behind WiMedia—the WiMedia Alliance—demands that all ultrawideband radio systems sold under the WiMedia banner be capable of strong hardware encryption and that for some applications, using this encryption capability be mandatory.

So far, FCC regulations that deal with ultrawideband technologies have made no mention one way or the other of the use of encryption. But could the federal government use the authority of the FCC to enforce a law requiring that all ultrawideband transmissions be in the clear? It’s not such a preposterous idea: the government’s hostility to encryption was demonstrated in the 1990s, when it tried to restrict the use of Internet-based encryption technologies. In the end, the borderless nature of the Internet caused the government to admit defeat. There is no such obstacle to controlling low-power radio, however.