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Get Facebook WiFi for your business

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Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#61

I'd consider advertising Facebook on a wifi hotspot as soon as they offer to pay for it by assuming liability for customers using that hotspot to share a bunch of film and TV show torrents. As long as courts keep pretending that an IP address is the same as a person, it doesn't make sense for small businesses with small pockets to offer free wifi.

Pretty much every coffee shop and at least half of the restaurants I walk into offer wifi, so I think the problem is smaller than you claim.

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this "absolutely disgusting"? It's good for Facebook, it's good for local businesses, and it completely optional for consumers. I don't see any problem here.

Let's see: My desktop machine is harvesting all sorts of information on me and Google can probably identify me with ease. My mobile phone KNOWS what my contacts are from services I haven't even installed yet (WTF!). Facebook tried to sneak in even more permissions on my Android device a couple of weeks ago (deleted it since). It seems every time I lose more and more and more anonymity, and guess what: The 14 year old…

None of those points have anything to do with this specific Facebook wifi product.

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#63
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this "absolutely disgusting"? It's good for Facebook, it's good for local businesses, and it completely optional for consumers. I don't see any problem here.

It is not optional for users who do not have Facebook.

It's not an option for people who don't want to agree to facebook's TOS, you mean..

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#64
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what does Facebook use? Is it proprietary? On maps on Facebook, the small text says "(C) Microsoft (C) Nokia".

Doesn't Facebook use bing for translation and maps?

I received a document in a message from a friend and it opened in Microsoft Office's cloud. They seem to have a lot of Microsoft integration.

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#65

I'd consider advertising Facebook on a wifi hotspot as soon as they offer to pay for it by assuming liability for customers using that hotspot to share a bunch of film and TV show torrents. As long as courts keep pretending that an IP address is the same as a person, it doesn't make sense for small businesses with small pockets to offer free wifi.

It's pretty easy to limit the bitrate by client. In addition with Facebook wifi, people might be less inclined to bad behavior as they use their facebook account (granted, they could create a bogus one, but still, that makes them traceable).

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#66
post #38

This is a pretty good idea. It solves the coordination problem of not wanting to just provide free wifi forever to anyone by requiring a token "payment". It solves the identification problem which (unfortunately) is a requirement in many jurisdictions. And it helps non-technical business owners provide decent wifi.

What sort of problem is this exactly solving? People seem to get at Wifi no problem at all. Just wander into any Starbucks around 4PM, especially in New York or any major metro and you'll see hordes of people accessing wifi. Is it crowded? Sure? But this doesn't solve that problem. This just eliminates some login steps and provides value to the provider of the wifi. Do you feel that trading in your privacy to simplif…

I'm sure that many people will think that tradeoff is worth it - I doubt many people will think about it at all.

Not everyone is a Hacker News reader.

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a "skip check in" link if you don't want to check in. Though it's unclear to me if you still need a Facebook account logged in.

"Skip Check In" will become the 2014 equivalent of 1999's "Skip Intro".

(I think I accidentally downvoted you, sorry. :< )

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#69
post #66
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of problem is this exactly solving? People seem to get at Wifi no problem at all. Just wander into any Starbucks around 4PM, especially in New York or any major metro and you'll see hordes of people accessing wifi. Is it crowded? Sure? But this doesn't solve that problem. This just eliminates some login steps and provides value to the provider of the wifi. Do you feel that trading in your privacy to simplif…

I'm sure that many people will think that tradeoff is worth it - I doubt many people will think about it at all. Not everyone is a Hacker News reader.

Exactly this. I mean, consider that anyone who wanted to could be monitoring the Wi-Fi they provide to you already. Starbucks could be crawling huge amounts of browsing data daily.
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