I'm currently sitting in a hockey arena owned by my city, they offer free wifi, and cause I'm privacy conscious, I try to download a VPN for my computer. The motherfuckers block the download under the vague "violation of use policy" bullshit. Even better, I read the ToS they give you when you connect, and it says sweet fuck all about prohibiting downloads. What the fucking fuck do you have to gain from me not using a god damn VPN. It just makes no god damn sense.

Some public WiFi is funded by analysis of your traffic for adverts or other purposes, maybe they attempt to block VPN downloads to either:

1) prevent you from preventing them retrieving that all important data about you so they can make money or

2) prevent you bypassing their content filter to keep them within the law regarding what you are visiting via their connection (which is bollocks as we know because the endpoint or logged point of that connection would then be the termination point of the vpn)

I've been asked by clients to implement blocks for these reasons before so :(

@bottswana I've got an ad blocker for one, and like I said this is a municipality provided wifi, why would they need my data for funding?

@Redrield unfortunately. Obviously I can't comment on this particular install because I've not seen it, but some permanent installs are actually subcontracted to another company who then makes their money from these practices.

My company looked at purchasing one of these systems designed to reclaim revenue from free WiFi, I ran for the hills. Very scary tech.

And an adblock will do some. The above mentioned device also looked out for info in unencrypted connections, such as email addresses from SMTP/IMAP when using their insecure operation modes.

I have never looked at free WiFi the same..