I’m super glad that I set up an OpenVPN server in my apartment, especially this weekend. Do you know what national hotel chain offers free WiFi, but that it’s:
- unencrypted (readable by others without password)
- forces a captive portal landing page where it:
- requires you entering your last name and room number, ostensibly as a hurdle that grants rights only to valid guests
- misleads you with a dark pattern to set up a rewards account, which, if you decline:
- forces you to watch an ad before it will start forwarding internet traffic
It’s Comfort Inn. That’s who. And they’re not the only one.
First, I hate this. Give me a password with my room key, change it daily, I don’t care. At least that encrypts the packets on the air so other guests can’t sniff and follow my activities.
Second, with the way they’ve designed their captive portal, it becomes a sales pitch, as well as a way to link my internet activities to my name. It blows any idea of anonymity out of the air.
Third, if I have to pay for the WiFi with my time and attention (never minding the nightly room fee), then the free WiFi isn’t free.
By using an OpenVPN tunnel to my home, all I’ve done is shifted the inspectability of my connection from the hotel’s point of view to my home ISP, which currently is Spectrum. At least Spectrum doesn’t appear to be monetizing my metadata and redirecting me to sales offers unrelated to cable internet. Not like Comfort Inn currently is. Spectrum is the devil I know. But this hotel? Who knows who they’re selling data to, with and without a subpoena.
Anything we can do to minimize the brutality of hostile networks is a win, and that’s important for our survival.
Especially now that AdTech is FaschTech.