When you are at an airport, hotel, or coffee shop, it is always tempting to log on to an open public Wi-Fi hotspot and save your data plan for when you need it. Unfortunately, however, access to public Wi-Fi is not always secure when it comes to protecting data. Open networks are easy to break into, and in the worst case scenario, some hackers build “evil twin” Wi-Fi networks that masquerade as existing public networks.

iDrop News reported that a newly granted patent to Apple suggests that the iPhone maker is working on ways to improve security when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks.

The company filed the “CROWD Sourced Privacy-Preserving Access Point Mapping” patent in March 2023; it was granted on July 16, 2024.

“A server device may receive access point data reports from multiple user devices containing various attributes and/or measurements regarding the access points to which the user devices have established connections. The access point data reports can be delivered without identifying the user devices or their users and their exact locations. The generated access point data can be provided to the user device so that the user device can improve the efficiency of the interaction between the user device and the discovered access points and/or networks.

In less abstract terms, this means that Apple is working on ways to get more information about public Wi-Fi networks beyond the current network name and signal strength for Apple devices like the iPhone.

Examples of more granular details might include network reliability and security based on previous user interactions.

This could help iPhone users find safer Wi-Fi networks or ignore shady ones.

Since this patent was just granted to Apple, we may not see true public Wi-Fi functionality for some time. Still, it means that Apple can officially push software and hardware solutions and increase testing.

In the meantime, there are several best practices to consider when accessing public Wi-Fi.