Not sure if I used the correct terms but what is the difference in security and privacy between downloading from a public wifi (or a closed wifi; with password) and mobile hotspot (sharing 4G/5G data from your phone to your computer)? Which one is recommended or does it not matter?
Well, using a mobile hotspot will tie the IP address to your phone, so probably not a great idea if your name is listed on the account. Honestly, just use a quality VPN and you’ll be fine with your home connection.
Even if it’s not the same protection as with a VPN sharing your mobile connection is a better idea than using your real ISP connection. Cause in fact most of mobile ISP use about 200 people on the same IP adress, that’s why for example these IPs are good for scraping, because Google and others web services whitelist these IPs cause they know that they are going to ban 200 people
I also did use a VPN on both mobile and computer. Does that change anything?
If copyright holders want to take action, their complaints will go to the ISP subscriber.
So, that would either be the entity operating the public wifi, or yourself (if your mobile data plan is associated with your name).
If you’re in a country where downloading copyrighted material can have legal consequences (eg, the USA and many EU countries), in my opinion doing it on public wifi can be rather anti-social: if it’s a small business offering you free wifi, you risk causing them actual harm, and if it is a big business with open wifi you could be contributing to them deciding to stop having open wifi in the future.
So, use a VPN, or use wifi provided by a large entity you don’t mind causing potential legal hassles for.
Note that if your name is somehow associated with your use of a wifi network, that can come back to haunt you: for example, at big hotels it is common that each customer gets a unique password; in cases like that your copyright-infringing network activity could potentially be linked to you even months or years later.
Note also that for more serious privacy threat models than copyright enforcement, your other network activities on even a completely open network can also be linked to identify you, but for the copyright case you probably don’t need to worry about that (currently).
When you use a hotspot from your phone the site/peers/whatever sees an IP that your ISP has assigned to you and could share that with authorities etc.
When you use a WiFi they see an IP assigned to the owner of the WiFi.
Security wise its easier for others in the WiFi to try and fuck with your computer since you are on the same LAN.
So it depends on what you fear the most.
most properly configured public wifi will enable client separation, of course that potentially still leaves lower level protocol and radio attacks.
If you’re using a trusted VPN like Mullvad, it doesn’t matter really.
Short answer: Mobile hot spot (w/ your own cellular device) is preferable to public wifi from a security perspective.
There are other considerations, such as how much cellular data downloads cost to you, what sites you’re visiting, what you’re actually doing, etc. In general, it’s advisable to avoid public wifi if you can, but if you must connect to public wifi, then you should make darn sure you connect to the right network (watch out for imposter networks w/ a legitimate looking name) and use VPN (ideally a paid service) to encrypt your traffic. Even with both of these measures, you’re best off avoiding sensitive activities like online banking on public wifi. If you must do banking or other sensitive stuff, either do it on your phone or wait until you get home.
Hope this helps.
Editing to add: When I initially responded, I’d forgotten which community I was in. In this context, I believe the other responses are better than mine, but I’ll keep mine up in case it helps other readers.
