Public Wi-Fi
For this threat model, the coffee-shop network is usually not the problem.
In plain words
Coffee-shop Wi-Fi keeps your browsing off your home router. It does not make a watched phone safe.
The usual warning, resized
Standard advice treats public Wi-Fi as dangerous because strangers might snoop it. Almost all sites now encrypt traffic (the padlock), so a stranger on the network learns little. For someone leaving a controlling situation, the risks that matter live on the device and the accounts, not the café's router.
What it's actually good for
Public Wi-Fi keeps sensitive browsing off your home router's logs and off a phone plan the other person may control. A device using it still syncs and reports to its accounts as usual, though — public Wi-Fi does not make a monitored phone safe.
Captive portals
Networks that ask for an email or phone number to connect keep that information. Any address works better than your real one.
What this does NOT protect against
- Monitoring software already on the device
- Account-level surveillance — the device still syncs to its accounts
- Location: joining a network places the device at that location
- Portal sign-ins that collect real contact details
Last reviewed 2026-06-01. Technology changes; if something here looks different on your device, trust what your device shows.