Should the Government host free wi-fi?

Wouldn't it be great if the Federal Government provided free wi-fi in federal buildings?  There are several considerations that should be made before allowing unrestricted access by the public.  Below you will find several acts that should be evaluated or assessed before providing unrestricted Wi-Fi access:

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 US Code § 1030) criminalizes certain acts involving unauthorized internet access prohibits unauthorized persons from accessing government computers without permission.   See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030.   To prevent this from happening it's important that any public internet access provided is separated from the governments internal business network.  

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000 addresses children's access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet.  This act applies specifically to schools and libraries but it could impact federal agencies (in my opinion).  The implementation of software to restrict or filter access that peddle obscene information or child pornography should be implemented.  http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

The Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) of 1996 is related to CIPA.  The Surpreme Court struck down CPPA in 2002 as a violation of the First Amendment.  It seems like a wise decision to prevent child porn from moving across any wireless network the public uses from government sites, regardless of this act begin struck down.

Collection of user information.  Google and other entities have gotten into trouble all over the world related to the information they have collected from wifi.  (http://epic.org/privacy/streetview/)  We need to be careful about collecting and using information from public wifi users.

Preventing the FBI from knocking on our doors.  Allowing unrestricted wifi access 24 x 7 could allow people to access content that the FBI watches for.  It's best to restrict the hours the Wi-Fi is available.  Here's an example of a problem that resulted in child porn being accessed through someone else's wifi network.  See:  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/fbi-child-porn-raid-a-strong-argument-for-locking-down-wifi-networks/

Preventing Piracy.  The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are cracking down on piracy over the internet.  RIAA and the MPAA have agreements with many large ISPs to encourage suspected internet pirates to stop downloading pirated information.  If we manage this ourselves we need to prevent piracy as businesses can be fined up to $150,000 for contributing to illegal content being downloaded through their Internet connections.  http://mikeyounglaw.com/internet-privacy-wifi/

Many hotels require users to log in for service and agree to terms of service.  This certainly seems prudent.  Also passwords should be changed regularly.  Reference:  http://www.owendunn.com/enterprise-risk-management-blog/pros-cons-offering-free-wifi-customers/ 

ON THE OTHER HAND

The respected Security guru Bruce Schneier and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend allowing open wifi.  Read more at:  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/open-wireless-movement.  Note the footnotes at the bottom of the article.  I'm not sure if government agencies would be considered an ISP related to Section 230 of the CDA (Communications Decency Act) or exempt from Section 512 of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).  The EFF recommends specific actions be taken to ensure that an entity providing free wi-fi is not liable for the activity of users related to copyright infringement.  Read more at:  https://www.eff.org/files/2014/06/03/open-wifi-copyright.pdf.

It's important that the Federal Government considers how it can provide wifi and restricts access carefully. 

What do you think?