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This has been available for several months now. To answer a few questions I've seen, it uses a typical captive portal approach, so an unencrypted WiFi hotspot.

by dade_ 13y ago

This has been available for several months now. To answer a few questions I've seen, it uses a typical captive portal approach, so an unencrypted WiFi hotspot. Upon connection, you are redirected to an encrypted site with embedded Facebook account verification, at which point you can go wherever the Internet service lets you. The router typically has content filtering and also tracks Internet usage (bandwidth, visited sites, etc) as well as limits on visit length etc. It is a useful option for merchants, as customers expect WiFi for free. Further, they expect it to be fast and that doesn't expose them to security risks. In other words, this gets expensive and difficult to manage. There are great solutions out there already, but they cost money - so the business case is based on marketing data. Email authentication would work, but it is difficult to gain much insight about customers, also you would need to give people access to their email server to setup their authentication. SMS doesn't work for people who don't have cell phones, or if there is poor coverage - also marketing data would be very difficult to gain. So, Social Media authentication (Facebook) turns out to be a really great option. Obviously you have the choice not to use the service, but this isn't going away. Industry codes of conduct need to be set and I don't think they have. Privacy laws need to be understood and enforced. Retailer and coffee shop activities with this data haven't caused me much concern, but Facebook is another story.

oceanplexian 13y ago
If your business depends on WiFi (e.g. Coffee Shop), this could potentially hurt business. Only ~50-70% of US Internet users use Facebook and that is dropping. As a business owner I'd be concerned about alienation. Facebook is far from universal and many avoid it (especially the younger crowd).
- loumf 13y ago
  Looks like there's a way to skip the checkin with a code that you get from the business.
- telecuda 13y ago
  A hybrid approach would be nice for your example: check in on Facebook to get online yourself, or go ask the barista for the WiFi password
  - hablahaha 13y ago
    I've been in a coffee shop that does this. You can either set the password yourself or log in via facebook. Don't remember the exact workflow, but it's possible.
    - jc4p 13y ago
      You can see the setting to enable this from the provider's point of view from the last screenshot on this post on Meraki's site: https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2013/05/youll-like-this-cisco-meraki-wifi-with-facebook-login/ https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2013/05/youll-like-this-cisco-...
      - mkopinsky 13y ago
        The main thing here that I didn't realize is that it seems there is ALWAYS an option to skip checking in, either by clicking "Skip checkin" or by getting the code from the cashier.
  - ezrameanshelp 13y ago
    More likely: there will be no hybrid approach and you'll see a piece of paper tacked to the bulletin board: "House throwaway Facebook account login for those without an account."
    - ryanmerket 13y ago
      Seriously? There IS a hybrid approach (read above comments). Ridiculous.
- lambada 13y ago
  Do you have a citation for that US usage statistic?
  - daphneokeefe 13y ago
    According to this often-quoted study, 71% of online adults used FB in September. http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-So...
    - r00fus 13y ago
      What's interesting is that this study is an extrapolation (n=5112), but it suffers from selection bias in the sense that the people who would avoid using social networks would also like just hang up on the survey caller (I hung up on 4 this past month). Add that to all the fluff-piece/marketroid sounding "survey results" like this: "Read more about Facebook activity and Facebook “power users” in our report, Why most Facebook users get more than they give" ...pretty much make me wonder what questions they asked, and how much the prodded the recipients of the call to ask if they used social networking. Surveys should state how many calls they placed successfully in order to achieve the (n) of respondents. That's information that's being thrown out.
mynewwork 13y ago
Does the system let you create a new facebook account or only login with an existing one? If I were to see this system in place, I'd just create a new fake facebook account. So long as the system doesn't have some draconian 'log in with an account older than 1 month with 10 friends' type thing, I don't think I'd mind, and I'm solidly in the 'facebook is evil' crowd.
- ezrameanshelp 13y ago
  I would just do the check-in and set privacy to "Only Me" - like I do every time an app share-walls me.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  Doesn't draconian normally mean excessive? It wouldn't be draconian considering you're proposing to engage in the exact abuse such a measure would be meant to fix.
  - tdumitrescu 13y ago
    'Draconian' does not mean 'excessive'. It means stringent, severe, brutally strict.
    - jamesaguilar 13y ago
      https://www.google.com/search?q=draconian https://www.google.com/search?q=draconian Has the word "excessive" in the definition. I think it's at a minimum connoted in most applications of the word. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it's defined, I was only trying to understand whether the OP meant "excessive" or just "something I don't like."
      - mynewwork 13y ago
        I choose the word draconian because I thought it was the best word to describe the idea I was trying to convey. If I had to rephrase, I suppose that all of 'strict', 'harsh' and 'excessive' would be fair words to use in describing it. As to your original comment, it can be both draconian and effective. The requirement could be that in addition to your facebook account, you also must upload a photo of yourself, holding government-issued ID, standing in front of the store, etc etc. That would make it even harder to use the wifi anonymously (abuse their system), but would clearly be a draconian measure.
bigiain 13y ago
" … it uses a typical captive portal approach, so an unencrypted WiFi hotspot. Upon connection, you are redirected to an encrypted site with embedded Facebook account verification, at which point you can go wherever the Internet service lets you. " I'm not eagerly awaiting the WiFi Pineapple plugin that impersonates this to phish for Facebook login credentials.

by dade_ 13y ago

oceanplexian 13y ago

If your business depends on WiFi (e.g. Coffee Shop), this could potentially hurt business. Only ~50-70% of US Internet users use Facebook and that is dropping. As a business owner I'd be concerned about alienation. Facebook is far from universal and many avoid it (especially the younger crowd).

loumf 13y ago
Looks like there's a way to skip the checkin with a code that you get from the business.
telecuda 13y ago
A hybrid approach would be nice for your example: check in on Facebook to get online yourself, or go ask the barista for the WiFi password
- hablahaha 13y ago
  I've been in a coffee shop that does this. You can either set the password yourself or log in via facebook. Don't remember the exact workflow, but it's possible.
  - jc4p 13y ago
    You can see the setting to enable this from the provider's point of view from the last screenshot on this post on Meraki's site: https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2013/05/youll-like-this-cisco-meraki-wifi-with-facebook-login/ https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2013/05/youll-like-this-cisco-...
    - mkopinsky 13y ago
      The main thing here that I didn't realize is that it seems there is ALWAYS an option to skip checking in, either by clicking "Skip checkin" or by getting the code from the cashier.
- ezrameanshelp 13y ago
  More likely: there will be no hybrid approach and you'll see a piece of paper tacked to the bulletin board: "House throwaway Facebook account login for those without an account."
  - ryanmerket 13y ago
    Seriously? There IS a hybrid approach (read above comments). Ridiculous.
lambada 13y ago
Do you have a citation for that US usage statistic?
- daphneokeefe 13y ago
  According to this often-quoted study, 71% of online adults used FB in September. http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-So...
  - r00fus 13y ago
    What's interesting is that this study is an extrapolation (n=5112), but it suffers from selection bias in the sense that the people who would avoid using social networks would also like just hang up on the survey caller (I hung up on 4 this past month). Add that to all the fluff-piece/marketroid sounding "survey results" like this: "Read more about Facebook activity and Facebook “power users” in our report, Why most Facebook users get more than they give" ...pretty much make me wonder what questions they asked, and how much the prodded the recipients of the call to ask if they used social networking. Surveys should state how many calls they placed successfully in order to achieve the (n) of respondents. That's information that's being thrown out.

mynewwork 13y ago

Does the system let you create a new facebook account or only login with an existing one? If I were to see this system in place, I'd just create a new fake facebook account. So long as the system doesn't have some draconian 'log in with an account older than 1 month with 10 friends' type thing, I don't think I'd mind, and I'm solidly in the 'facebook is evil' crowd.

ezrameanshelp 13y ago
I would just do the check-in and set privacy to "Only Me" - like I do every time an app share-walls me.
jamesaguilar 13y ago
Doesn't draconian normally mean excessive? It wouldn't be draconian considering you're proposing to engage in the exact abuse such a measure would be meant to fix.
- tdumitrescu 13y ago
  'Draconian' does not mean 'excessive'. It means stringent, severe, brutally strict.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    https://www.google.com/search?q=draconian https://www.google.com/search?q=draconian Has the word "excessive" in the definition. I think it's at a minimum connoted in most applications of the word. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it's defined, I was only trying to understand whether the OP meant "excessive" or just "something I don't like."
    - mynewwork 13y ago
      I choose the word draconian because I thought it was the best word to describe the idea I was trying to convey. If I had to rephrase, I suppose that all of 'strict', 'harsh' and 'excessive' would be fair words to use in describing it. As to your original comment, it can be both draconian and effective. The requirement could be that in addition to your facebook account, you also must upload a photo of yourself, holding government-issued ID, standing in front of the store, etc etc. That would make it even harder to use the wifi anonymously (abuse their system), but would clearly be a draconian measure.

bigiain 13y ago

" … it uses a typical captive portal approach, so an unencrypted WiFi hotspot. Upon connection, you are redirected to an encrypted site with embedded Facebook account verification, at which point you can go wherever the Internet service lets you. " I'm not eagerly awaiting the WiFi Pineapple plugin that impersonates this to phish for Facebook login credentials.