US' FCC bans more gadgets for China links, says these cameras and video transmitters run on 'spy chip'
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blocked a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter from the American market because they carry chips made by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon. The regulator calls the part a “foreign surveillance chip,” and neither device can now be marketed or sold in the US.
This is the first time the agency has used a power it gave itself on October 13. The new rule lets it reject any gadget built around a chip from a company on its national security blacklist . FCC chairman Brendan Carr said such video devices “pose an obvious and unacceptable risk to the nation and our people.”
The FCC has not named the brands or models of the two devices. It has, however, singled out HiSilicon’s Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision SoC. This processor takes the raw feed from a camera sensor and turns it into a working home security camera, dashcam or similar device. The agency has not said whether this exact chip sits inside both blocked products.
Why the FCC sees this Huawei camera chip as a surveillance riskThe agency’s case leans heavily on HiSilicon’s own marketing. The company pitches the Hi3516CV610 as a chip made for the surveillance market, with face detection algorithms built in. Its parent, Huawei, has sat on the FCC’s Covered List since March 2021. The list names companies and products Washington considers an unacceptable risk to US national security, and it extends to their subsidiaries and affiliates.
The FCC has not said that either device sent data to Huawei. The block rests on who made the chip.
New FCC rule stops blacklisted chips from slipping into other brands’ devicesThe October 13 rule closes what the FCC describes as a component loophole. Earlier, a device assembled and branded by a company not on the list could still win approval, even if a blacklisted firm made the parts doing the actual computing. Now the FCC can block any device using a “logic-bearing hardware component” from a listed company, if the full device would have been barred had that company built it. In plain terms, that covers chips running digital logic at more than 9,000 cycles a second. Passive parts such as housings, wiring, resistors and plain battery cells are left out.
The rule has limits. It applies only to new equipment applications, so products already approved can stay on sale. It also covers only companies named on the list, not the country-of-origin bans on foreign-made drones and routers.
Online stores get new duties too. Marketplaces will have to show a device’s FCC ID at the point of sale, with deadlines of March 1 and June 1, 2027, depending on how much control a platform has over the product.
The block adds to a busy year for Carr’s FCC. Foreign-made routers, power inverters and advanced robots, including robot vacuums, have all been pulled under the Covered List since March. Critics of those moves have asked whether such bans make users safer or mainly decide which manufacturers get to sell in the US. The FCC says it will keep enforcing its component rules aggressively.
This is the first time the agency has used a power it gave itself on October 13. The new rule lets it reject any gadget built around a chip from a company on its national security blacklist . FCC chairman Brendan Carr said such video devices “pose an obvious and unacceptable risk to the nation and our people.”
The FCC has not named the brands or models of the two devices. It has, however, singled out HiSilicon’s Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision SoC. This processor takes the raw feed from a camera sensor and turns it into a working home security camera, dashcam or similar device. The agency has not said whether this exact chip sits inside both blocked products.
Why the FCC sees this Huawei camera chip as a surveillance riskThe agency’s case leans heavily on HiSilicon’s own marketing. The company pitches the Hi3516CV610 as a chip made for the surveillance market, with face detection algorithms built in. Its parent, Huawei, has sat on the FCC’s Covered List since March 2021. The list names companies and products Washington considers an unacceptable risk to US national security, and it extends to their subsidiaries and affiliates.
The FCC has not said that either device sent data to Huawei. The block rests on who made the chip.
New FCC rule stops blacklisted chips from slipping into other brands’ devicesThe October 13 rule closes what the FCC describes as a component loophole. Earlier, a device assembled and branded by a company not on the list could still win approval, even if a blacklisted firm made the parts doing the actual computing. Now the FCC can block any device using a “logic-bearing hardware component” from a listed company, if the full device would have been barred had that company built it. In plain terms, that covers chips running digital logic at more than 9,000 cycles a second. Passive parts such as housings, wiring, resistors and plain battery cells are left out.
The rule has limits. It applies only to new equipment applications, so products already approved can stay on sale. It also covers only companies named on the list, not the country-of-origin bans on foreign-made drones and routers.
Online stores get new duties too. Marketplaces will have to show a device’s FCC ID at the point of sale, with deadlines of March 1 and June 1, 2027, depending on how much control a platform has over the product.
The block adds to a busy year for Carr’s FCC. Foreign-made routers, power inverters and advanced robots, including robot vacuums, have all been pulled under the Covered List since March. Critics of those moves have asked whether such bans make users safer or mainly decide which manufacturers get to sell in the US. The FCC says it will keep enforcing its component rules aggressively.
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