I am cross-eyed from researching this subject and still don't know the best way to go. I'm going to be in the United Kingdom for 16 days in June, and would like to text, access email, social media, and, in an emergency, banking/credit card sites. Not that concerned about phone calls. Obviously public Wifi is not safe, so I've looked at VPN subscriptions as well as cellular plans.. (Have read very negative reviews of free VPNs.) Apparently cellular access is considered safe, but expensive so I looked at AT&T International Day Pass & AT&T Passport.. Does anybody have any suggestions or experiences from using any of these methods?

How I miss the days of innocence when I blithely logged onto public wifi and did whatever I wanted.

Buy a subscription to PIA. Personal internet access. Easy to set up on your laptop and mobile, cheap and will cover most of your fears.

I'm not so sure about cell service being expensive in the UK. When I went late last year it was something like �25 or 30 for 30+GB of data on 3--more than enough for the amount of time you're staying and what you're going to be using. I was even able to use tethering, despite stuff I read online claiming I wouldn't be able to.

If anything, roaming from your US carrier will likely be way more expensive (or slower).

What exactly is your concern? Just about every email provider, bank website, Facebook, and most other sites will use TLS these days. Nobody will be able to eavesdrop. They'll know what site you're visiting, but that's it. And if you get a VPN provider, the VPN provider will know what site you're visiting. The only need for a VPN is to spoof your location or if your local ISP censors your access to the web - neither of which is likely to be a concern in the UK.

Enjoy your trip.

Unclear where OP is located now, but wondering why so concerned about the UK vis-a-vis present location?

I'll let others respond to the public VPN options. I have a VPN set up back to my office that I use when necessary.

AT&T passport is an international data plan. It is expensive for what you get and there is a per minute usage charge for voice calls.

AT&T International Day pass extends your home voice/data plan internationally and it works well. You can use voice/data as you would at home with no additional usage fees. It's $10 per 24 hour period and it lets you use your phone off your regular rate plan and voice/data allotment. I use it often for short trips as it is convenient and once you enable it on your line there is nothing else you need to do and you can decide whether to use it or not. For 16 days it would be $150 or $160 depending on when you turned it on. You could certainly find a less expensive options but for ease of use this just lets you use your phone to make and receive calls and use data just as you would at home. All calls to and from the US and Day pass countries are included so you can call to UK numbers and US numbers at no charge. One thing to watch out for is that if you have WIFI calling enabled and turned on and dial a UK or international number it will charge as an international call originating in the US. If you make the call over cellular it will be free.

yes, OP please elaborate your specific concerns a little bit more. Most things that most of us do most days are pretty safe from network-based eavesdropping nowadays. Apps hide this a bit, so if you want to be extra safe you can stick with web browsers and make sure the TLS security is marked.

+1

If the sites you need to reach use HTTPS, nothing to worry about.

A far larger problem when traveling is the use of public computers. Just assume those have keyloggers installed.

The answer is the same as when someone is asking an advice between Seat A or B, Airline C or D and so on...
It will mainly depend on OP own considerations : using a VPN over a public wifi might seems safer for her but as a free VPN might not be enough..

every one has its own criterias. Personnaly I tend to consider that HTTPS with banking website is enough to secure a communication with my own device (indeed not with public computers).


If I can give an advice : If I was a non-european and I was to spend 3 weeks in the UK , I'd buy a local sim card : it won't be too expensive if done properly and can prevent the stress to find a (working) public wifi.

I can't agree more. But if OP has to pay for something, a Pay as you go Sim card might be much more interesting : same security level as in the US with AT&T and no need to keep looking for a public wifi (and by experience, the more you need one, the less you find one).

I like VyprVPN because the apps (at least on iOS) have a feature to automatically connect on untrusted WiFi networks with the ability to whitelist networks you trust.

HTTPS is secure, but susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks which is exactly how an attacker would compromise a public hotspot (or a bad actor establish one with this sole intent) and obviously there are plenty of places on the internet that do not use HTTPS.

I'm curious about MITM attacks over HTTPS when one is using one's own client system and not downloading certificates from the hotspot since I thought that was not possible or at least only possible by nation state actors. Has something changed?

Thanks.