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What laws did they violate? Just to disambiguate my tone, I don't doubt they could have violated laws, I'm just not very knowledgable in this area of the law and would like to learn more.

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My understanding it was some sort of law related to the tracking feature, and possibly some sort of espionage related laws. This was a speaking class (6.UAT), so I don't know much about the details. Hopefully someone from the project shows up and can answer better.

My guess: shipping a lithium ion battery improperly.

Naw, lithium ion batteries have a high self-discharge rate. Not a good idea for this kind of project.

Since we're talking eWaste, my guess is a bunch of 6V alkaline batteries strung together in an old CRT monitor.

It's a good idea to use primary cells for this case, but did they?

They seem to be vague about the device and its batteries, but they do say they utilized an external battery.

With no mode of recharging, why bother with rechargeables?

Lithium ion batteries have the lowest rates of self-discharge.

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