The internet has become a part and parcel of life. There is nothing that cannot be done with the help of internet right from playing online quiz games to ordering food, video calling and what not. In this world of interconnecting networks, the best thing offered is free internet or Wi-Fi connection. Apart from offices and homes, a lot of local restaurants, coffee shops, and shopping malls provides free Wi-Fi connection to its customers. People willingly log on to the networks and surf the internet or work on their official programs in free Wi-Fi. But have you ever wondered whether the network that you are connecting to is secure enough?
Game of Games – IP Address, the Root of All !
With the increasing use of internet, there has been rise in cybercrimes as well. The basics of any cybercrime is tracking down personal or official information from the IP addresses. This can easily be done from the free Wi-Fi connections that people use on a daily basis. Usually, the free Wi-Fi connections are handled by third party providers and they log us online so that they can get our valuable data in exchange. The sign-in data generally contains our full name, social media profile, phone number, and even email address. This information can be stored and later targeted so as to follow us virtually in terms of habit insights, location, and advertising. This was a common issue a few years ago in the United States and has now prevailed to other countries like India as well.
In order to find out solutions to avoid being tracked, PC World, a global computer magazine tried to find out solutions by interacting with various Wi-Fi location companies an privacy experts and networks like Euclid and Zenreach agreed to answer their queries. It turns out that about more than a dozen of the providers commonly ask users whether they want the connection to track down their location like “location data”, “your location”, device identifiers”, and usually consumers see no harm in accepting that small tab question. The interesting fact about these connections is that even after you turn off the network or have left the particular restaurant, your information can still be tracked down with the help of the location since the device used has already been connected once. So, the next time you log on to a common Wi-Fi connection, “Look before you Leap and Think before you Click.”
