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
  • ef9357@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Please just don’t use public WiFi and if you do, assume that your privacy and security are at risk.

    • bokherif@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      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

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        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.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          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.

  • tobogganablaze@lemmus.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

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

    • bl_r@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      2 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.

    • LifeOfChance@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Cock_Inspecting_Asexual@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      THEY DONT EVEN LET ME USE DATA THO! Like they force me to use their wifi while inside the store and I HATE IT. I cant even call my mom cus it just murders any kind of single I had going in there.

    • lemmingnosis@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      privacy sacrifice to use internet in their cavernous dead zone of a building

      It was a worthwhile sacrifice, but I’m definitely gonna name & shame! Wouldn’t touch WiFi if it weren’t a dead zone.

      Also gave me a chance to complain about some of their other business practices. (Certainly wouldn’t have shopped there if I hadn’t been asked to this one time.)

      I’ve never seen this message before so they seem an outlier even in the greedy corporate world. Enough complaints and every once in a while a business changes their practices. Why not whine a little? 🙂

    • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Would you say the same thing if they intercepted HTTPS connections? Or blocked popular DNS (edit: DNS over HTTPS/TLS) resolvers and required you to use the one advertised in DHCP?

      I think if you’re going to provide WiFi, just do it and stop spying on me.

      The reason they want this is probably so they can tie your Walmart account to your position inside the store. And see which other sites you visit to find a better price, etc.

      • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        Yes. Their public network. I have no expectations of any privacy on a public network. This is privacy 101.

        • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          You’re conflating the individual practice of having a pessimistic threat model with a corporation’s entitlement to behave badly.

          Of course I assume the worst from Walmart or any other public network — I just think they should have some class and provide a public good to their customers without creepy privacy invasion. Somehow they manage to provide free water in fountains without requiring me to scan my driver’s license.

          If they published a white paper explaining the Differential Privacy properties of their customer analysis tech, I might revise my opinion.

          • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.worldEnglish
            01·
            2 months ago

            They aren’t invading the privacy here. They are preventing a malicious actor from running an attack via VPN and ssh tunneling in addition to IP address, device, etc. At worst they are associating IP with browsing at competing stores. Preventing the VPN was likely required by a lawyer and auditor and a risky attack vector for a billion dollar company.

            If Walmart was breaking https and inserting man in the middle games it would be in their policy. Other commentators went off into fantasy land edge cases where traffic is being decrypted. And it still doesn’t change my expectation of privacy on a public hotspot.

  • takeda@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 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”