Privacy Guides @lemmy.one Andrew @andrew.masto.host 3mo ago

The spies in your home: How WiFi companies monitor your private life

https://proton.me/blog/wifi-surveillance

@privacyguides

19 comments

WTF is a wifi company? Next up: how a cat5 company can protect your privacy??
- They're singling out a single company that makes these WiFi pod thingies
TL;DR "buy our VPN"
- TL;DR: Don't buy Mesh WiFi, especially if offered at a low price/subscription by your ISP. Use old-fashioned routers and access points.
  
  If you already have or really need Mesh WiFi, consider installing a VPN client on every single device that supports it. A VPN config on your router will not protect your data from the spying WiFi Mesh Pods.
  
  I get why ISP provided routers and some brands of mesh router would collect and sell data but what is it about "mesh" that is particularly bad here? I have a cheap TP Link router that is apparently mesh compatible but it seems like a traditional router in all the other way. Should I be concerned?
  
  Thanks for this: so sick of seeing “mesh” WiFi everywhere, what a load of trash. Just set up access points with roaming capability, actually use the correct broadcast power (instead of trying to blast it off to space), etc. I’ll never understand why people want their backhaul going over WiFi; yikes.
  
  Just buy old Ruckus units and run the mesh on their Unleashed firmware. Still worse than wired backhaul, but better than running a VPN entirely internal to your own network.
- There are a number of other options listed, but that is one of them.
Always seems self-evident that equipment you don't own and control isn't going to work on your behalf.
Buy your own router. Ditched my ISP modem, never looked back. The control, the features, all of it is now necessary to me.

19 comments