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New York City is building 10,000 Internet pylons for free public Wi-Fi

• kyboren 12y ago
  "Gigabit speeds", free access, ostensibly physical-only advertisement for financial support... wow, sounds perfect! But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. What else might these hotspots do? Insert header "permacookies" to enable tracking across the web? Track people physically all over the city by their WiFi broadcasts? Provide realtime session content and user location data to NYPD? To FBI/NSA? Please excuse my cynicism. Is it really wise to put NYC "in the middle" of your connections on purpose? Is it wise even to distribute WiFi points of presence around the city, where they can more comprehensively surveil the population? Are NYC's motives truly so benign/altruistic?
• bingobob 12y ago
  why not just put the AP's on the light posts?
• elijahchancey 12y ago
  YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!
• noble12 12y ago
  Not going to hold my breath. More confidence in Elon Musk launching a bunch of low orbit internet satellites. Now THAT would be awesome...