Rant: The coffee shop near my office in Austin has a public Wi-Fi login page that looks super fake

I was at a spot on South Congress yesterday and their free network login asked for an email and a birth year. The page had a weird URL and no SSL padlock. It got me thinking, is it ever okay for a business to ask for any info on a public network, or should they just offer a simple click-through? Where do you draw the line between basic data collection and a real security risk?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaeladams16d ago

My old gym in Denver had a guest wifi that asked for your full name and phone number just to check email. I gave them a fake number every time, but it always felt like they were fishing for marketing leads more than providing a service. Why does a coffee shop need your birth year, are they carding you for internet access? That missing padlock is the real red flag though, makes you wonder if they even know what they're doing.

scott.ryan16d ago

That gym in Denver probably just wanted to stop non-members from hogging bandwidth all day. The coffee shop asking for a birth year is likely just a lazy age-gate form from their wifi provider.