McAfee Safe Wi-Fi

This app protects you from Wi-Fi tracking and extends your phone’s battery life.

Did you know that when your smartphone isn’t connected to a Wi-Fi network, it looks for networks it knows by sending a signal identifying itself and any network it remembers connecting to? It’s like your phone is walking down the street shouting, “Hey, it’s me. Are you my home, office, or favorite coffee shop Wi-Fi?” Not exactly private and secure.

McAfee® Safe Wi-Fi protects you by managing your Wi-Fi connections. The app automatically turns your smartphone’s Wi-Fi off when you leave a hotspot you trust, and turns it back on when you’re near a safe, known network.

Turning Wi-Fi off when you don’t want to connect is also a great way to extend your battery life.

Your phone’s Wi-Fi isn’t as secure as you think

When Wi-Fi is on, your smartphone is broadcasting:

• its unique identifier (MAC address)

• names of Wi-Fi networks (SSIDs) you’ve previously connected to

That’s all that’s needed to track your location or — here’s the scary part — trick your phone into connecting to a risky imposter network.

This means if you use a hotel’s Wi-Fi then stop at a coffee shop, someone in the coffee shop could set up an imposter Wi-Fi hotspot using the hotel network’s name. Why? To trick your phone into connecting to it so they can steal your personal info.

Protecting your privacy

McAfee® Safe Wi-Fi uses cell tower IDs to know where you are and only turns Wi-Fi on when you’re in a cell zone containing a hotspot you trust.

The app also lets you know when your phone connects to a Wi-Fi network, so you always know what’s happening.

This means:

• your movements can’t be tracked through Wi-Fi

• you’ll know when your phone connects to a Wi-Fi hotspot

• your battery will last longer with Wi-Fi turned off

McAfee® Safe Wi-Fi respects your privacy and doesn’t collect your personal info, but the app might ask for some permissions to protect your device better. Best of all — it’s a free app with no ads.