Update 8-23-07
It now appears that using someone else’s wireless connection might get you arrested, especially if the wireless connection is encrypted (as ours is). According to a Wall Street Journal blog today:
An FBI spokeswoman said that Wi-Fi squatting isn’t a federal offense provided the network isn’t encrypted. But state laws vary. Michigan’s Fraudulent Access To Computers, Computer Systems, And Computer Networks law outlaws the practice, for example. And people have been arrested in several states, including Florida, Illinois and Washington, for Wi-Fi squatting. Technically you’re stealing bandwidth, but it isn’t as clear a violation of the law as accessing the network to, say, hack into someone’s computer.
Original Post 3-4-06
Today’s New York Times has an article entitled, Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on my Wireless. In it, several individuals are quoted as saying that they don’t believe that they are stealing when they use someone’s wireless connection, even though it slows down the connection, sometimes to a crawl, because of the additional traffic.
Piggybacking, the usually unauthorized tapping into someone else’s wireless Internet connection, is no longer the exclusive domain of pilfering computer geeks or shady hackers cruising for unguarded networks. Ordinarily upstanding people are tapping in. As they do, new sets of Internet behaviors are creeping into America’s popular culture.
“I don’t think it’s stealing,” said Edwin Caroso, a 21-year-old student at Miami Dade College in Miami, echoing an often-heard sentiment.
“I always find people out there who aren’t protecting their connection, so I just feel free to go ahead and use it,” Mr. Caroso said. He added that he tapped into a stranger’s network mainly for Web surfing, keeping up with e-mail, text chatting with friends in foreign countries and doing homework.
Many who piggyback say the practice does not feel like theft because it does not seem to actually take anything away from anyone. One occasional piggybacker user recently compared it to “reading the newspaper over someone’s shoulder.”
We’ve had experience with this. We had a neighbor who asked to borrow our wireless internet connection and we were glad to let him, as he was a neighbor who gave us as much as we gave back. Then, when we moved to a new neighborhood, we borrowed someone’s wireless connection when our new home did not have our cable internet installed yet. However, we did go and tell the person who owned the connection right away, and would have stopped borrowing the bandwith immediately, but our neighbor said it was fine. (Perhaps because he was a minister he was especially forgiving.)
I don’t think that using someone’s wireless connection is “like reading the newspaper over someone’s shoulder,” and that one should ask permission before doing so. I think that our internet era, which has made it so much easier to steal music and other copyrighted material, has lowered our standards of honesty. But if we want to build trust in terms of Concern, we should always ask permission before using someone else’s property. Wouldn’t we want them to do the same thing?
What do you think?
Filed under: Trust
It’s a great question. I think you have to define exactly what it is that you’re stealing. The article mentioned bandwidth as one issue, but the guy from Symantec pointed out that the piggybacker is also using your identity. It’s the equivalent of letting someone borrow your car (with your license plate) to take a joyride on the information superhighway. The piggybacker can do all sorts of nasty deeds from your network and you’ll be the one the authorities investigate. That’s obviously a different matter from reading the newspaper over someone’s shoulder.
You make a good point about the internet lowering our standards of honesty, but it also lowers other standards as well; and those standards only sink lower when people believe they are anonymous. Even if the piggybacker doesn’t do anything illegal, (s)he may use your IP address to browse sites that you would find morally objectionable, or they may use your network to advance causes with which you disagree. You may also be exposing your own computers to worms/viruses that the piggybacker picked up during their travels.
By not securing the network, you’re implicitly trusting anyone within shouting distance of your home. You may trust your neighbors with all of the issues above, but should you trust anyone who is parked along your street? Out-of-town guests, teenagers visiting a friend, hackers looking for an unsecured network, etc?
We can show concern by pleading with our neighbors to secure their networks. I don’t know if that builds trust or not-—maybe they’ll just think you’re a weirdo :)
Reasonable security is usually not difficult. If you need a place to get started, here’s an article on the basics:
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm
We had a huge lightning storm which (we thought) had “blown up” our laptop. When we plugged the cable into the Mac, we could still get internet connection. After a week of trying to get the laptop fixed, we were told there was no problem with it. One day the cable was left out of the Mac and we still had internet connection. We had no idea why. We rang a relative who is au fait with computers and he said we had connected illegally to someone’s wireless connection. We had to check google to even find out what “wireless connection” meant. I am worried that all the things I did during that time on the wireless connection – internet banking, buying things online with the credit card, etc etc can be traced, hacked into, whatever. I don’t know whether to apply for new credit cards etc. Can someone please tell me if the things we inadvertently did are going to get us into big trouble, having our identities stolen, angry neighbours etc (we are in our 70’s and love the internet but things take a little longer to learn) thank you Judy
Theft is theft plain and simply. By saying that it’s okay and you must want someone to steal your connection because you don’t secure it is like saying that a woman is asking to be raped because she didn’t wear underwear.
To break it down to the simplest terms, you are taking something that isn’t yours…which is theft.
If I leave my bicycle out in my front yard, does it give you the right to use it? No.
If I leave my keys in the car, does it give you the right to drive it? No.
If I leave my wireless connection open and unsecure, does it give you the right to use it? No.
In fact, I just found out that my neighbor openly admitted that she is using my wireless connection. She was very non-chalant about it and has never asked if she could use it. If she had asked, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it.
We are friendly, but not friends. So, today I secured my connection. She is the only other one on it (according to my logs and client list). It might upset her, but that’s not my problem. Oh, and her dog crapped in my yard today and she didn’t clean it up, so I’m especially upset with her anyway.
I don’t like it. I just found out (today) that some in my neighborhood has been using my internet connection. For what? I don’t know. But I’ll tell you one thing though. It’s gotten me so stressed out that I’ve been pulling my hair out!!
For months now, I’ve been trying to figure out where all my money to my Internet Provider is going to. I’ll pay the monthly bill but I’m finding out that the bill has gotten very steep; from under $100 to well over $400+.
Then a little message pops up on my computer telling me that there’s more than one wireless connection on aboard. To be honest with you, I never really paid attention to that ‘pop-up’ before. But I decided to look into and VIOLA!
If you ask me…….an A–Hole is an A–Hole with a crack in the middle. Guess who’s going to pay my bill now?
To Jeremy: your analogies are wrong. Wifi is different. It is the use of airwaves. The airwave is a public resource. A better, and more accurate analogy is that of a radio. If you want to listen to the radio, turn it on. Your neighbor, who happens to hear what’s playing on your radio, is not stealing anything. If you do not want anyone to listen to your radio with you, lower down the volume. For wi-fi, if you do not want anyone to use it with you, reduce the power (so the signal stays within your territory) OR use encryption. Rape and panties, bikes and theft, keys and cars, are different because there is an overt act required and an object involved. That is, rape requires using force on someone; bike theft requires taking; driving your car requires theft of the key, etc.
I believe that using someone else’s wireless that is not advertised as being free to use or is not offered up for use is stealing. I use my laptop wirelessly all the time, but I refuse, even when tempted or suggested to do so, to use someone’s unsecured network. Yes, the airwaves may be public domain, but that does not give you the right to listen in on someone’s wireless phone conversation. To me, this is the equivalent of going to the side of your neighbor’s house and hooking a cable line into their TV cable for the night because you were too cheap to get cable or pay the bill.
People who use other people’s wireless just because it is unsecured need to stop being cheap and get their own wireless or go get an aircard like the rest of us responsible people do.