back to article WBA OpenRoaming promises seamless access for municipal Wi-Fi

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has completed testing to prepare for the deployment of WBA OpenRoaming, a federation service built to give seamless access to Wi-Fi hotspots across Europe's municipal networks. WBA OpenRoaming, described as a "Wi-Fi roaming standard," is intended to provide users with roaming access to Wi- …

  1. Zack Mollusc

    Seamless access

    ..... so this is a standard that allows users free access to wifi access points that would otherwise be inaccessible due to the use of encryption?

    Isn't this like putting all my biometric data on a card which I then present to security to prove I am me?

  2. Graham Cobb

    Privacy and control

    The list of security standards in the article (and, presumably, in the underlying press release) are all very well, but they tell us nothing about the real security implications of the service.

    In particular, does it allow for user choice, information and identity selection?

    Choice: I need to know to whom I am connecting and be asked to authorise it. I certainly won't allow my device to connect to random networks, whoever they may be affiliated with. Nor will I allow it to connect automatically without asking me.

    Information: I need to know who is running the network, what their privacy and other policies are, how it is paid for (are they selling me or am I paying directly), what restrictions, monitoring and filtering are in place. Are there restrictions on use of VPNs or other security tools? What information do they remember if I connect to them again in the future? What do they pass to other providers in the scheme?

    Identity: I interact with almost all commercial (and some government) entities with different identities (different mail addresses, no 3rd party cookies or scripts). Which identity is my device going to use to interact with this network? How do I tell it which one to use?

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