“You start to get a story about someone,” Cheung said.

The company that provides Wi-Fi signals at Starbucks is T-Mobile USA Inc. It manages about 7,600 HotSpots nationwide, including in coffee shops, hotels and airports. T-Mobile offers a free software program, Connection Manager, to improve browsing security, said Mike Selman, the service’s marketing director. “You can use this to make sure you are connected properly to our network,” Selman said, “and that communications are encrypted from the laptop.” But the security program also seems to be more or less a secret. Not only does the name of the program not mention security, but the link to download it also is grouped with other items in a dropdown menu. If you have a Macintosh computer, you’re out of luck: The software comes only in a Windows version.

On home Wi-Fi setups, password protection can be implemented on the modem, which offers a lot of security—although some hackers say they can break through the most basic protection regimen, known as WEP. Public Wi-Fi setups, whether paid or free, don’t have the luxury of using passwords. That would defeat the purpose of allowing a great many people to use them.

Free Wi-Fi hot spots are being added to more outdoor areas everywhere. So, enjoy the freedom of Wi-Fi. But maybe you shouldn’t surf to sites you wouldn’t want people to know you’re visiting. “If you watch where people go, one site after another,” Cheung said, “it’s almost like you can read their minds.”
-David Colker (Los Angeles Times)