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NYC has the LinkNyc free wifi program. Guess who uses it the most? ..... the homeless, and the poor. (they replaced pay phones with it, and i have seen it bei
by ardit33 6y ago
NYC has the LinkNyc free wifi program. Guess who uses it the most? ..... the homeless, and the poor. (they replaced pay phones with it, and i have seen it being used always by the less than fortunate types).
Connecting to it is not great, but it is better than nothing. This would have helped the poorest people, yet SF turned it away without providing a substitute.
- busterarm 6y agoLinkNYC is run by Intersection (a merger of Control Group and Titan (who owned all of the MTA advertising)), which is owned by Sidewalk Labs. Those LinkNYC terminals also run huge display ads 24/7, specifically targeted at the people in range of seeing them. Internally, the terminals are two Android devices. Sidewalk Labs' parent company? Alphabet. aka Google.
- nlh 6y agoJust to add to the sibling comment: LinkNYC absolutely benefits from this commercially. Those terminals are packed with sensors & cameras, and they collect MAC addresses, count pedestrians, etc. etc. etc. Free WiFi in exchange for prime on-street real estate for your sensors turned out to be a superb deal for them.