ECJ ruling restricts public WiFi networks

Socialwave is the only provider to offer fast, intuitive and legally secure WLAN access beyond VPN solutions.

• The ECJ ruling limits the recently adopted German legislative amendment to abolish liability for interference

• VPN solutions for public hotspots are vulnerable to data protection law

• The ECJ decision makes Socialwave's technology the standard for hotspot solutions

After the Bundestag decided to abolish the liability for interference a few weeks ago, a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is now restricting the German legislative amendment again. The ECJ ruled that although traders do not have to assume responsibility for copyright infringements within their WLAN, operators of public WiFi hotspots are required to query the identity of users. Since, in the opinion of the ECJ, a simple identification query will be sufficient for this in the future, the VPN solutions commonly used in Germany will become obsolete. However, the majority of providers of public WiFi hotspots in Germany still rely on the use of a VPN connection. However, this VPN solution is cumbersome, slow and vulnerable to data protection law, as data traffic with this method is routed via external servers. According to the current legal situation, the Socialwave hotspot is therefore the ideal solution for operators of public hotspots, because Socialwave uses a simple identification and login process that does not require a VPN connection. Since the network connection is established directly via the local connection, this process is also faster, cheaper and, above all, less susceptible to faults than the VPN solution. More than 2,000 customers now rely on Socialwave's hotspot solution, including franchises from Rewe and Edeka, Segafredo and the Enchilada Group (dean & david).Click here for the full press release