It has been revealed that there is a Facebook free Wi-Fi feature coming to everyone. It is coming right now; you may already have the feature available. Why be a buzz kill? Everyone loves free Wi-Fi, right?
Unfortunately, yes, everyone does love free Wi-Fi. Including some rather notorious individuals. Read on to discover more about Facebook’s free Wi-Fi, and how to protect yourself if you choose to use it.
Using Facebook’s free Wi-Fi
Using this new tool from Facebook is easy enough. It is called Find Wi-Fi and is available as an easy-to-use app:
To quote Facebook:
“Find Wi-Fi helps you locate available Wi-Fi hot spots nearby that businesses have shared with Facebook from their Page. So wherever you are, you can easily map the closest connections when your data connection is weak.”
When you open up the app, you are shown a variety of free Wi-Fi connections near you. This typically means coffee shops and other public Wi-Fi. This allows you to find a Wi-Fi connection when you need one quickly. This can be useful for traveling… Or for those who want to do Facebook Live. You know that they were not doing this entirely altruistically.
The problem with Facebook’s free Wi-Fi
The problem with Facebook’s free Wi-Fi is the same problem there is with all free Wi-Fi in the world. That problem is that you do not control the network, or you don’t know who does. This means that hackers can set up free Wi-Fi. They can then use it to steal your information, such as:
- Banking details
- Passwords
- Private communications
- Work communications
- Photographs you send
I do not doubt for a second that hackers are hearing about Facebook’s free Wi-Fi and looking for ways to get their fake Wi-Fi included on it. More than anything, hackers love a big crowd that is vulnerable. With the perceived trust of Facebook listing these free Wi-Fi access points, hackers should have a field day.
Experts say free #WiFi is so easy to breach that anyone using it faces huge danger of #hackinghttp://t.co/SeuZXjvylp pic.twitter.com/5dQEqPXt1w
— PCI London (@PCI_London) May 20, 2015
Protecting yourself when using Facebook’s free Wi-Fi
There is no doubt about it; you need to protect yourself when you use Facebook’s free Wi-Fi tool. There is no way that Facebook can guarantee that a free Wi-Fi listed on its app isn’t malicious. You need to protect yourself with encryption using a VPN app.
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Other good practices include not connecting to sensitive apps or websites while you were on a network which you do not control. You need to minimize your risk until you get back home to your network which you control.