The biggest roadblock to open wireless is security. An unlocked wireless network is assumed to be less secure. Another problem is an encryption doesn’t always come in handy because if someone is looking for opportunities to eavesdrop, then encryption is not a solid defense against it.
In defense of open WiFi, it could be argued the existing protocols such as WPA or WPA2 do not provide the kind of security that they claim to provide. Malicious scripts or spyware may break the defense of WPA2. So open WiFi alone doesn’t pose a serious threat to security as everyone believes it does.
Nevertheless, the advocates of open WiFi fail to take in stride two very important findings; first, even if someone eavesdrops a WPA2 standard wireless network that is encrypted, then he’d have to be in proximity with the person whose WiFi network he aims to hack. Compared to that, open WiFi is pretty susceptible to hacking. Besides, privacy and security are different. An open wireless network may be secure but users might have to compromise with privacy.
