Wi-Fi and its pitfalls...

A guy we know was walking his dog along the beach one morning and his smart watch pinged at him. He looked – someone was offering him a Wi-fi signal, 2 hours for ￡1.99.

What would you do? If you’re one of those who would say “hook up and save myself some data allowance,” there’s a couple of things to bear in mind.

We could start by talking about people running spoof or malicious wi-fi services – something that forces your device to connect to their system and then steals your data. We could – but we won’t, because we believe the risk of that happening here in Jersey is pretty low. But there are several issues that are relevant to public Wi-Fi:

·????????There should be a GDPR statement. You do want to be reassured your data isn’t going to be stored without your agreement, no?

·????????There should be terms and conditions. If you read nothing else, do check who it is that is operating the service, and that they’re registered for data protection. If you can’t find that information, that’s a big red flag.

·????????If it’s open to the world, bear in mind that other people could be using it as well, and not just to scan Facebook.

·????????If they’re charging for access, what’s the security mechanism like on the payment portal?

These points will of course vary when you travel – the possibility of encountering malicious Wi-Fi in Europe or the UK is higher than here; some benighted places (like the USA) lack adequate data privacy regulations. If you have reason to be concerned about data security, install a VPN and use that (but do your research first; not all VPNs are created equal, and several of the free ones have significant vulnerabilities). Or if you’re wary of installing VPNs, don’t use Wi-Fi to exchange any more data than you would on a postcard.

Tailor your approach as you go - do consider the risks and make decisions on that basis.