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 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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] 42 points 10 months ago

LOL, "your communication cannot go through our service that we can monitor, so somebody else might be spying on you, black is white, war is peace, freedom is slavery"

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago

Start giving their store one star reviews and mention this

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months 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] 7 points 10 months 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] 4 points 10 months 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] 5 points 10 months ago (3 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] 3 points 10 months ago

I'm not sure Walmart counts as reality.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months 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] 2 points 9 months 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] 1 points 9 months 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] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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] 1 points 9 months ago

Saaaaaaaame though

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I don't understand why you would need wifi in a supermarket. What are you doing while shopping that mobile data can't handle?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Large warehouse type buildings make getting a signal difficult ESPECIALLY in a walmart. I prefer using the app to find items I wouldn't otherwise know where to look.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I didn't consider those absurdly large US malls, my bad.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I use it to pull up a recipe that I’m cooking, If I need to double check a detail. Usually, I have everything on a physical list for practicality.

The issue is large warehouses, like Walmart or Costco or whatever often have bad cell reception, so you might need wifi to reach the internet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I primarily use it to look up locations of grocery items.

When I’m looking for a niche item, it’s so much faster to find it in the app than to wonder the store figuring out where it is

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Oh this gives me good reason to find a Walmart. I would love to see how it handles VPNs and it would be a fun game to set up a travel router that can obfuscate the VPN tunnel if needed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Using OpenVPN or Wireguard should work because they typically use port 443, which you can't block without killing the internet connection altogether.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Wireguard uses UDP which you definitely can block without breaking HTTPS (just QUIC aka HTTP/3). And its default is port 51820, I believe.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You read my mind.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I use the websocket tunnel connection mode in Windscribe for those networks that block VPNs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Wouldn’t UDP on port 443 still be weird though? I can’t remember whether QUIC and modern HTTP servers serve UDP on that port.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

If you use tcp

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

I use a VPN just fine inside a Walmart. It's annoying you need a Walmart account now to use it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Did I hear evil twin in your plans

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Murrica lmao

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Offering open wifi for the public is a terrifying thought.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A wire guard peer would probably be better

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months 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] 4 points 10 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

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

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