We’ve all gotten them. That email that a co-worker or friend forwards to us about about a sick child who wants to break a world record for receiving the most postcards, or perhaps you’ve seen the email urging you to quickly put your mobile phone number on the “Do not call” registry or else you will start receiving telemarketing calls on your cell.

If you like to be mobile with your computer, then you probably have used public Wi-Fi or perhaps even a pay-per-use Wi-Fi hotspot. If so, then you should be careful about how you read email while connected to one of these public access points. Most public Wi-Fi providers do not require you to make a secure connection to their wireless router. This leaves your transmissions easily readable by eavesdroppers. You can protect yourself with a very simple change to your web browsing behavior.