No thanks, Safeway

[omahas]

Today I went into the Safeway near Kouryou-chan's spring break daycamp. I needed to grab something for breakfast, and thought I'd use their wifi while I waited for the next bus. I accessed the network and brought up my browser to log on. They had a terms of service which I'd never read, having never used Safeway's wifi before, so I decided to do a

Comments

[codeamazon]

I loathe Safeway. Developed a dislike for them YEARS ago after shopping in one with an *armed* guard (not in a particularly bad part of town -- I'm pretty sure he was to prevent shoplifting) and watching said guard come over to conspicuously hover when someone's bank card failed to go through on the first try.

Reinforced that dislike when everyone came out with the stupid savings cards. Safeway alone offered NO alternative. (Albertsons will let you ask for the savings without the card, and Fred Meyer doesn't require it at all. Didn't have QFC down there -- they don't seen to allow it either.)

I resent having to give them my buying habits information in exchange for the loss-leaders that they hiked all the other prices to cover. It's my data, damn it. Give me a fair price across the board, or an opt out!

[slutdiary]

I did the Honey Bear coffee shot at Ravenna 3rd Place Books this morning.

Free wi-fi, lots of outlets, pleasant blues playing overhead, and no censorship of access.

[technoshaman]

You got a link to this? I hadn't heard this, and I'd like to post it. I'd been drifting back in that direction after getting hold of a cardnumber that points at a nonexistent residence in another state, but if they're quisling out to the Empire, I won't do business with'em for shoelaces or a stick of gum.

As for monitoring, folks? There's a reason I keep my own personal server in a colo I trust implicitly, and set up a secure encrypted tunneling proxy to do my browsing with when I don't trust the uplink... I'm even doing it presently from work, just as a matter of policy.

No, it's not something your Aunt Matilda can do. OTOH, there is something your Aunt Matilda can do that's *even better* (albeit kinda slow in the browsing)... go grab the Torbutton plugin for Firefox. At that point you can give anybody you want to the digitus impudicus about monitoring... it's going out random servers over a secure link, and unless something makes it obvious, even *you* don't know where your end point is. (I remember Googling something on

[technoshaman]

There are all *sorts* of ways to monkeywrench things. Card-swapping clubs, bogus data, etc... but being aware and in control is the first step. (And, yes, basically if you've got a situation where there's no clear winner and all the big dogs have card programs? I think the card-swapping thingy is the way to go. OTOH, I prefer voting with my feet and my wallet when one guy is clearly worse than the others...)

Thanks for looking. The more folks we have out there with the time and drive to keep the idiots honest (or at least exposed), the better.)

[orcaarrow]

I am so sorry to hear that. You know most people probably wouldn't even have looked at it. That is really crappy.

[zonereyrie]

I'd probably use it and just use SSH, SSL for gmail, or IMAP with TLS/SSL so they could see where I went, but none of the content. :-)