Stumbler Code of Ethics v0.2


By Renderman
render (AT) renderlab (DOT) net

These are by no means rules that must be followed, but they are a collection of suggestions for safe, ethical, and legal stumbling. I encourage you to follow them and to inform others of them to help keep this hobby safe and legal.

1. Do Not Connect!!:

  • At no time should you ever connect to any AP's that are not your own. Disable client managers and TCP/IP stacks to be sure. Simply associating can be interpreted as computer trespass by law enforcement.

    • 2. Obey traffic laws:

  • It's your community too, the traffic laws are there for everyone's safety including your own. Doing doughnuts at 3am gets unwanted attention from the authorities anyways.

    • 3. Obey private property and no-trespassing signs:

  • Don't trespass in order to scan an area. That's what the directional antenna is for :) You wouldn't want people trespassing on your property would you?

    • 4. Don't use your data for personal gain:

  • Share the data with like-minded people, show it to people who can change things for the better, use it for education but don't try and make any money or status off your data. It's just wrong to expect these people to reward you for pointing out their own stupidity.

    • 5. Be like the hiker motto of 'take only pictures, leave only footprints':

  • Detecting SSID's and moving on is legal, anything else is irresponsible to yourself and your community.

    • 6. Speak intelligently to others:

  • When telling others about wardriving and wireless security, don't get sensationalistic. Horror stories and FUD are not very helpful to the acceptance of wardrivers. Speak factually and carefully, Point out problems, but also point out solutions, especially how we are not the problem because we don't connect.

    • 7. If/When speaking to media, remember you are representing the community:

  • Your words reflect on our entire hobby and the rest of us. Do not do anything illegal no matter how much they ask. They may get pissed off, but at least you have demonstrated the integrity that this hobby requires.

    • This document is merely a set of suggestions for the Wardriving community, assembled over time from the Wardriving community. This is a living document so it will be updated from time to time. Suggestions and comments should be sent to Render@Renderlab.net. Feel free to copy, just make sure to leave the credits intact and a link back to the original if possible.

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