this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024

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'"Walmartwifi" isn't compatible with iCloud Private Relay' | Store demands privacy sacrifice to use internet in their cavernous dead zone of a building (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This is after forcing login to a store account:

At least they don’t hide in their ToS that:

“l agree to let Walmart monitor my use of Walmart WiFi, including to:

Determine my presence in Walmart stores
Associate information about me with my Walmart account
Improve products and services
Gather market insights about my in-store purchases and activities”

But that’s not enough, they need to monitor your internet activity further too.

For further reading, some greatest hits (the section headers on Wiki’s Criticism of Walmart):

Local communities
Allegations of predatory pricing and supplier issues
Labor relations
Poorly run and understaffed stores
No AEDs in stores (automated external defibrillators)
Imports and globalization
Product selection
Taxes
Animal welfare
Midtown Walmart
Opioids settlement

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Looks to me like you just needed to get through the captive portal and could have turned it back on immediately after.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Please just don’t use public WiFi and if you do, assume that your privacy and security are at risk.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Or use a vpn if you really must. I’ve noticed that most Walmarts have really bad cellular connectivity and this is probably the reason why

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Instead of offering WiFi why don’t they just set up LTE/5G in store? I once complained to my carrier about terrible reception and they sent me a magic box that takes cellular data, puts it in a VPN tunnel back to the carrier and goes on from there.

I thought these things were pretty normal, or am I missing something?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The problem is that you don’t get LTE/5G reception in the store from your phone, so why would a box that does the same thing solve the problem?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The box routes the traffic over the Internet typically via Ethernet. The magic box opens a VPN tunnel to the carrier where the traffic is handled the same way it would be if you were using “real” LTE/5G.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

That would be good for the customer. I think the whole point of it is to monitor customer traffic, so even if it’s a better solution, I doubt they would do it lol.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I noticed that also. I would never connect to Walmart's wifi unless it was some kind of communication emergency.

So I just don't use my phone in Walmart and that's fine. Human beings don't require a data feed to survive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Human beings don't require a data feed to survive.

The hell I don't. I am NOT putting up with reality for that long, ESPECIALLY in a Walmart.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure Walmart counts as reality.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sounds like a personal problem. I'd recommend learning to focus on reality in the moment, and be present enough to appreciate the nice things that exist around us. Smartphones and the internet are fun but using them as a crutch to feed all your dopamine is a dead-end road.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

This is bad advice inside a Walmart

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

They have bad cell signal because it's a giant steel box, big box stores are basically big shitty Faraday cages.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just set up a cheap squid proxy or an http proxy. They often still work

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A wire guard peer would probably be better

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Their ToS requirements don't appear to require traffic sniffing, so a tunnel won't save you. Wi-Fi is a digital signal after all

Tunnel is def a good idea though

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Wireguard tunnels encrypt traffic, and you can add a pre shared key for additional security, no?

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