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My coffee shop wifi scare made me finally get a VPN
I was working at this little spot in Denver called The Daily Grind last Tuesday, just checking my email on their free wifi. I went to log into my bank app for a second, you know, to move some money around. The page loaded weird, like super slow, and then a pop-up I'd never seen before asked for my social security number. I closed everything fast, but my heart was pounding. I told my friend who knows tech, and he said public wifi is basically an open door for that stuff. He told me to get a VPN, so I downloaded one called ProtonVPN that same night. Now I turn it on before I even open my laptop if I'm not at home. It feels like a tiny shield. Has anyone else had a close call that finally pushed them to use one?
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hernandez.ben4mo ago
It's crazy how one scare like that makes you see the whole web differently. Once you start noticing how many places track you, like your phone listening for ads or stores using your email for loyalty cards, you realize it's not just public wifi that's sketchy. I was at a convention recently and everyone hopping on the same open network made me cringe inside. It's like how people got paranoid about skimmers at gas pumps ten years ago. Now the threat is just invisible and everywhere, so a VPN feels less like a luxury and more like a seatbelt.
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