Facebook App Integrating Public and Free Wi-Fi Finder

In an effort to keep its users connected, Facebook’s social media platform has begun testing a new public and free Wi-Fi search feature on its mobile app. The plan is currently being utilized in select countries and only in iOS but the company is expecting to roll the feature out worldwide eventually. Users can access the feature currently by toggling the “Enable Find Wi-Fi” option under menu. The feature highlights locations with public or free Wi-Fi and it also indicates how far it is from the current location. The app requires users to give it permission to access location history and will build a location profile based on the area, so users who have concerns about privacy might want to keep this option disabled.

Since this feature enables Facebook to gather location data profile on each user, this also allows them to tailor ads accurately based on the user’s travel activities. If it sees the user frequenting Starbucks every morning for a pumpkin spice latte when in season, expect pumpkin spice latte ads to show up on the feed. Two years ago, Facebook teamed up with Cisco in order to provide free internet access if a user checked into a business using the social media app in an effort to drive businesses to establish Facebook pages. That plan was a pilot program that was abandoned eventually but it seems this time, Facebook is being more aggressive with rolling out their Wi-Fi finder feature and it is most likely here to stay for the benefit of users who are concerned with going over their monthly data cap and don’t mind a little less privacy.