Is “connect to suggested hotspots” safe? Is there a middle ground?

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I’m setting up a new Windows 10 system and had to pause and think about the customization question: “automatically connect to suggested open hotspots?”

Does this mean automatically connect to any open hotspot without any warning, or only to hotspots to which I have connected before? I’m fine with the latter, but the wording of this option suggests that it is semi-dangerous to enable it. Thanks for any advice!

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Read the Wi-Fi Sense section in this article – http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/company/blog/windows-10-privacy-five-important-settings-to-change

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I would never set my computer to autoconnect to suggested open hotspots. It is exactly as it sounds: if Windows finds any hotspot it can connect to, it will connect without asking you first.

An example of this is Starbucks. Starbucks wifi has no password requirement. Also, it has no encryption, which means that everything you do is in the clear and hackable. So if you say yes to this question, everytime you go into Starbucks with your computer on, it will autoconnect you to their unsecure network.

Having said that, it’s unlikely your computer would be on and logged into Windows when you walk into Starbucks. Therefore, unless you turned the computer on when you are there, you have nothing to worry about.

Still, I don’t like the idea of my being automatically connected to who-knows-what network. I want to see what I’m connecting to before I connect.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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….”automatically connect to suggested open hotspots?”

Does this mean automatically connect to any open hotspot without any warning, ….

it is semi-dangerous to enable it. Thanks for any advice!

yes, warning? I have no idea and yes, very dangerous

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