The intative promises to be privacy-friendly with no tracking. Stating:
Your privacy is important. The WiFi4EU app ensures a private online experience with no tracking or data collection. Simply connect and enjoy free public Wi-Fi without concerns.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/wifi4eu-citizens
Will be interesting to see how this spans and plays out in reality. Looks promising too, did a quick scan of their builtin permissions and trackers and looks good too. (Scanning tool is called Exodus)
93k may seem a lot, but I’m on holiday in EU right now and the closest hotspot is 40 minutes away. Still impressive initiative, I hope it gets more coverage.
I just checked the map and it looks like they put these hotspots all around of my city to the countryside, but none inside the city
one of the requirement to get the funding was that there are no comparable hotspots nearby, like a library or city hall providing a hotspot
To be fair, there are already plenty public hotspots in most cities already, where as in the countryside less so I imagine.
That is true, in Vienna outside of the city center I wouldnt agree but it is probably the reason