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Everyone is grateful that public Wifi exists, don’t get us wrong. When things get too noisy at home and you want to retreat to a coffee shop to work, public Wifi makes it possible to connect and get everything on your day’s to-do list checked off. But, hold that thought. If your to-do list consists of certain tasks that require digging a little too deep into your personal information, one of the worst things you can do is throw caution to the wind at your local Starbucks. We spoke with tech experts and many had the same thing to say: this is the worst public Wifi mistake you can make.
Don’t Mix Money With Public Wifi
If you want to Google directions to the nearest Thai restaurant on public Wifi, Google away. If you want to quickly check Facebook to see if anyone has commented on that cute photo of your dog, go for it. But there’s one mistake that many tech experts agree you should absolutely not make when you are in public and using an unknown connection: do not, under any circumstances, enter your payment information or banking passwords onto a website when you are connected to public Wifi.
“This is honestly something really important to keep in mind as you go about your day connected to a store’s or library’s public wifi network,” says Tech Expert Josh Wright, CEO of CellPhoneDeal. “Never enter payment information into a payment portal or passwords into your sign-in page while you’re connected. These public networks are, in most cases, notoriously under protected and can leave at risk of having your information compromised and stolen.”
Wright recalls a scary incident involving his own family member. “My own father went through something quite similar when he was shopping and wanted to buy something in store for the online price,” Wright says. “Unfortunately, instead of waiting to get home or even disconnecting and using his own mobile data, he stayed connected and paid for it while he was connected to the public network. Not even a week later, we had seen several fraudulent purchases over various cards he had saved on his account. If you have to wait just a few more minutes to get home to use your personal Wifi, it will be much safer for your information than risking it to someone who might be lurking on those public networks.”
In a nutshell: do not do anything while connected to public Wifi that you wouldn’t want the stranger at the table next to you to know about. Do not check your bank statement — or pay your electric bill — or be tempted to snag that swimsuit from Amazon that’s only on sale right this very minute. The risk of entering personal banking information or passwords onto a site that isn’t secure is NOT worth the hassle (or the cute swimsuit).
