Three High-Tech Ways Travelers Put Privacy At Risk

When you travel, whether it's for a vacation or work, the last thing that may be on your mind is the threats posed to your privacy (other than the trip through the TSA body scanner). But there are ways that you may be leaving yourself open to loss of personal information that you might not even suspect.

Decoy "public" WiFi. If you're waiting to get on the plane and using the airport's public WiFi, you'd think you were protected. But are you really using the airport's free wireless? If you're able to connect to a WiFi port without providing a password or seeing a screen, you might be connecting to something else entirely—like someone else's computer set up as a decoy to capture passwords and other information. Your best bet is to make sure you're connecting to a WiFi network provided by the airport, hotel, or whatever location you're in by name—not a network called "FreeWifi" or something like that.
Getting "Firesheep'd" over public Wifi. Even if you've got the right WiFi network, anything you do over that network is visible to others connected to the same hotspot. As I noted in an article about Firesheep, the add-on to the Firefox browser that lets people hijack your web sessions, such sniffing by someone with bad intent can lead to your Facebook and other web accounts being exposed. The best preventative medicine is to use a pocket MiFi hub or a broadband wireless modem that others can't share, or to plug into an Ethernet cable in a hotel room.
Getting "peeped on" while using the hotel's TV for the web. Hotels often offer web access and other digital services over their television systems, including billing. But these systems often have poor security, and a malicious person or persons could easily capture information from your web sessions for ill. Hackers have demonstrated that by manipulating the infrared control for the television –or even by hooking up a spare cable box—that they can view the screens of others in the hotel. In some cases, they can even gain access to your billing information for your room, depending on what system the hotel is using. While it's a relatively minor risk, it's still one that you should consider—and it's better to use the laptop or netbook and your own personal wireless to get to the internet for things like purchases and private email than using a hotel on-screen service.