Facebook is testing a free Wi-Fi option at select businesses in Northern California — but there’s a trade-off for free access.

In order to access the Facebook Wi-Fi option, you must log in on Facebook and check in at participating locations. What’s in it for Facebook? You disclose your location and then Facebook’s network of advertisers can feed you targeted ads.

If you don’t want to reveal your location, you can set that to private. But you’ll still get targeted ads. If this test works, Facebook Wi-Fi will become steadily more available in other areas across the country.

So what’s your privacy worth? Are you OK with revealing what you’re up to, what you’re doing, where you’re going to?

Free Wi-Fi is popping up in more and more places. It’s a differentiator for businesses that can really help bring in the customers. I was even at a convenience store that had free Wi-Fi! Customers love it, but the criminals love it too, unfortunately.

New technology even allows amateurs to hack into password-protected accounts when you’re on Wi-Fi. That makes it more important than ever that you surf with care at free Wi-Fi hotspots.

Many free Wi-Fi systems don’t have any form of encryption on the data being transmitted. It used to be that if you went to Facebook or to an online banking site, somebody had to be good techie to steal your password info. But that was then and this is now.

You are asking for it if you go to any password-protected website on free Wi-Fi without any encryption. Of course, there’s a simple solution to the problem: Don’t do anything at a Wi-Fi hot spot of a personal nature that requires a password.

Consumer expert Clark Howard’s column appears here each Thursday in conjunction with Deal Spotter, a weekly print section in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Find more answers to your consumer questions at Clark's website.

-- Clark Howard -- Save More, Spend Less, Avoid Rip-offs -- for the Atlanta Bargain Hunter blog

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