829
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) by Sunny@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world

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)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] giacomo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

oh dude, they promised to be privacy friendly! maybe I'm just too american to believe in promises.

You don't have to trust them any more than you trust your local Starbucks WiFi. We're at the point where your traffic should no longer be vulnerable just because you're on the wrong WiFi network.

[-] prole 1 points 22 hours ago

You don't have to trust them any more than you trust your local Starbucks WiFi

I don't really trust that either

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 20 hours ago

That's the point, you don't have to. The system works on the assumption that the AP is untrusted.

[-] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

except when not. HTTPS helps with security, but there's privacy leaks all around all kinds of network traffic. apps and services you use, websites you visit (DNS, SNI), when do you do something, like arrive or receive a voip call, ...

[-] 8fingerlouie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

My traffic is not vulnerable, but my device might be.

When you connect to public WiFi, you also share it with others, and maybe someone on that network wants to test out their new hacker skills ?

Maybe not as much of a problem for phones, but that juicy developer laptop running unauthenticated MongoDB with a dump of the production database.. yup, that now “mine”.

Ideally all those services should be listening on 127.0.0.1 / ::1, but everybody makes mistakes. Maybe the service comes preconfigured to listen on 0.0.0.0.

[-] loudwhisper@infosec.pub 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Someone runs MongoDB unauthenticated, bound on 0.0.0.0 with production data, on a computer without a VPN, and the problem is the WiFi?

Like I get what you are saying, but this sounds like saying that we should ban speedbumps because imagine there is a guy with a loaded gun pointed at a kid with no safe, finger on the trigger, and high on coke, if the car hits the speedbump the toddler is gone. Yeah, but I would hardly say the speedump is the issue.

[-] Honytawk@feddit.nl 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Just keep your firewall set to public network and you will most likely be fine.

Anything can be hacked, even on your private home network.

[-] 8fingerlouie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Again, people make mistakes, so they may think the firewall is on, but that one time 3 weeks ago when they were debugging something and they turned off the firewall for it, yeah, we never got around to enabling it again.

Also, my home network is a lot more secure by default than shared public WiFi. At home I have decent control over who and what connects. Sure, people could in theory crack my WiFi password, but the risk of that is low compared to sitting on public WiFi.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 points 23 hours ago

Nothing we can do to prevent that, unless we want to turn all laptops into walled gardens. PEBKAC is not the fault of the WiFi network.

[-] TheSaddestMan@lemmy.zip 1 points 14 hours ago

I mean, we could switch to Linux distros (so that you can fine-tune DNS and VPN settings without corporate BS), but the intricacies that introduces to connecting to the WiFi safely are not casual in scope. Most people are better off buying a lightly-used Mac (or not, it's been a while since people have been happy with Apple) or replacing their laptop with a Fairphone or Graphene OS phone than switching to Linux from Windows 10.

Windows 11+ however... is another story. Anything but letting the IngSoc Smart TV become the OS. The issue is that computers come bundled with Windows and so they use "Secure Boot" to trap you. You can't use Secure Boot without Windows, and you can't play many online games if you do not have Secure Boot (even if the excuse as to why is a filthy lie) so if you're gaming you basically have to hope that Steam OS triumphs.

Best option is to just go to places where the wifi service is affordable but not free so that the operator needs to keep tabs on whether users are doing something other than browsing the internet or playing games (i.e. stealing people's info or putting malware on their machine). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any great demand for internet cafes anymore in my location.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

Most people are better off buying a lightly-used Mac (or not, it's been a while since people have been happy with Apple) or replacing their laptop with a Fairphone or Graphene OS phone than switching to Linux from Windows 10.

I don't really see the connection there with somebody bringing down their own firewall, hosting open services, and basically putting out the welcome mat. You can burn yourself on any OS (and if you can't, I don't want to be using or pushing it).

Best option is to just go to places where the wifi service is affordable but not free so that the operator needs to keep tabs on whether users are doing something other than browsing the internet or playing games

What place charges little enough for the WiFi to be affordable but has somebody live monitoring network traffic?

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day ago

Been that way since https became common

[-] hisao@ani.social 3 points 21 hours ago

How do we know intelligence agencies are not in collusion with certificate authorities though? What if they actually have access to ROOT CA private keys and can just automatically strip https from most of the traffic in their mass surveillance software? This is something I found with a very quick search: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiNotar

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 1 points 15 hours ago

Yeah sure but defending against nation state intelligence agencies is a thread model few people have. It's also not really realistic unless you go to paranoia level mitigations.

[-] Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 4 points 1 day ago

That's why audits exist

[-] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

The EU is almost just as bad, I know the bar is high compared to the US, but still.

[-] Honytawk@feddit.nl 7 points 1 day ago

There are tons of things the EU is doing well, dude.

From resisting the technocapitalist rethoric of the US, to standing up against imperial bullies like Russia.

I'm not saying it is perfect, nothing is. But sometimes it feels like the EU is the only reasonable beacon in a sea of corruption.

[-] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

LOL 'dude'
The EU just bent over to get fucked by US tarrifs.
They shouldn't worry about Russia as much as they should about US imperialism that causes all the trouble.
But these sell outs will gladly suffer as good obedient vasals. 🤡

[-] qweertz@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

The EU only cares about blocking the private sector from getting their citizen's data. They actively harm privacy when it's about government access

this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
829 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

73758 readers
3410 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS