How we’re keeping you secure in the WiFi Map app
As the internet becomes integrated with more and more aspects of our everyday lives, cybersecurity is more important than ever. Today, people are required to go online in order to do all kinds of activities, from work and education to communicating with friends and family, planning journeys, shopping and banking. All of these activities have risks associated with breaches of personal data and other forms of exposure. You wouldn’t want a hacker or criminal to know the password to your bank account, just as you’d probably want to make sure that only your colleagues had access to important work documents. If you’re travelling alone, you want to be sure that strangers can’t find out where you’re staying or where you’re planning to have dinner.
It goes without saying that WiFi networks are the backbone of the WiFi Map ecosystem. They allow our community of 160 million people to experience a fast, stable and secure internet connection totally free of charge in over 200 countries around the world. One downside of public WiFi hotspots, however, is that they can pose a security risk.
Part of the solution comes in the form of VPNs, or virtual private networks. A VPN uses a private network to secure public networks by redirecting IP addresses through a remote server. This makes it much more difficult for your ISP (internet service provider) or a third party to track your location or any other information exchanged while you’re browsing. When connected to a public WiFi hotspot, you can use a VPN in order to be confident that your passwords, card details and other private information will be safe from hackers.
WiFi Map has been offering a VPN service for years now, and users who subscribe to pro features can enjoy unlimited protection. What’s more, we recently added an option that allows you to unlock VPN for a limited browsing session free of charge by watching ads. The service is one of the most popular features in our entire ecosystem aside from the WiFi hotspots themselves, and users can choose from a wide range of VPN servers covering over 40 countries including Argentina, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.
We take security very seriously at WiFi Map and our VPN uses strong encryption protocols to scramble your data, making sure that nobody who tries to intercept your data can read it. Besides the VPN service, we also have a strict no-logging policy, which means we don’t store any data about the online activities of our users. This ensures that your personal information and browsing history remain private.
We all know how vital security is for Web3 and crypto at large, and the WiFi Map developers have taken every step to ensure that your $WIFI is totally safe inside the app.
Digital mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay use encryption, tokenization and biometrics to protect user data, and these same tools are also deployed by Web3 wallets. In the case of the latter, there are two key pieces of information that allow them to function: public addresses, which make it possible to transfer funds to specific users’ wallets, and private keys, which provide confirmation that the sender is the real wallet owner. On our part, we’re making sure that your private keys and the server access keys are safe.
As for our users, there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself online. Firstly, we recommend using a VPN whenever you connect to our free public WiFi hotspots. By subscribing to our pro features, you will also be able to download offline maps to find hotspots and get connected even if you don’t have mobile data, as well as removing ads from the app. If you want to save money, you can watch an advert each session. When carrying out financial transactions or sharing private or sensitive documents, a VPN is a must. We also recommend using strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication wherever possible.
There are a few security steps to remember for when you’re interacting specifically with crypto. First and foremost, remember never to share your seed phrase or private keys with anyone, and never send funds to anybody you don’t know. The only official WiFi Map websites are weconnectu.io and wifimap.io, so don’t believe information from any other websites claiming to represent WiFi Map. The team will never ask for your private keys or seed phrase.
Stay tuned — we’ll be doing more in the coming months to offer even greater transparency when it comes to your personal data.
