New York City just launched a new program called LinkNYC. The program convert obsolete public phones booth into free wifi stations.

See this ArsTechnica article to learn more about LinkNYC.

My issue with this is privacy, well not just privacy as I can compromise on privacy is more about surveillance. 

New York State, NYC and the Federal Government are all notorious for massive widespread surveillance on the civilian population. 

And somehow I just can believe or trust that they will have this opportunity to once again snoop on citizens communication and that they will just not abuse it.

I don’t know about you but I will not connect my device to this LinkNYC wifi unless I am at least using a VPN.

My advice is don’t use it. But if you will at least get a decent VPN like Private Internet Access or Cloack.