cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/25779751
The intative promises to be privacy-friendly with no tracking. Stating:
Your privacy is important. The WiFi4EU app ensures a private online experience with no tracking or data collection. Simply connect and enjoy free public Wi-Fi without concerns.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/wifi4eu-citizens
Will be interesting to see how this spans and plays out in reality. Looks promising too, did a quick scan of their builtin permissions and trackers and looks good too. (Scanning tool is called Exodus)
Maybe it’s different in the EU then. Here, when cafes had internet, they offered a WiFi password for customers.
I feel like we mean very different things with the term ‘Internet cafe’. This is what the term brings to mind for me.
Apparently you’re thinking of actual cafes with F&B. Cultural differences I guess.
I still don’t see the point. Even if the location offers some sort of ‘secure’ WiFi, you cannot trust them. Every link on the chain between your device and the server must be considered potentially malicious. The main thing that needs to change is the current leak of sidechannel data needs to be halted.
How, though? If it’s inherently unsafe, what’s the alternative?
There’s nothing ‘inherently unsafe’ about it. It’s untrusted, not unsafe. The software stack just needs to develop more with that in mind. Consider Tor or any VPN as an example of how most if not all the metadata could be hidden.