Is this the network you expected, with a name you recognise?

Did your device join it automatically?

Is file or printer sharing switched on?

Do the pages you are using show a padlock?

Are your system and browser up to date?

Will you sign in to email, banking or similar?

Will you enter card or identity details?

Do you have a VPN available on this device?

Answer a few of these and we can be more specific

Not enough answers yet

Public Wi-Fi is less dangerous than it is usually made out to be — almost everything is encrypted now — but it is not nothing. Answer a few more questions and we will tell you which parts actually apply to you.

What a VPN protects here

It hides which sites you visit from whoever runs the network, and from anyone else on it.
It protects traffic that is not already encrypted — which is rarer than it used to be, but not nothing.
It means a fake hotspot set up to intercept traffic sees encrypted data rather than content.
It hides your real IP address from the sites you visit.

What a VPN does not protect you from

It does not stop phishing. A convincing fake login page works exactly as well through a VPN.
It does not protect you from a website that has itself been compromised.
It does not stop malicious downloads, and it is not antivirus.
It does not prevent your account being taken over if your password is reused or guessed. Two-factor authentication does that; a VPN does not.
It does not help if you type card or identity details into a fraudulent page — those go straight to the fraudster, encrypted the whole way.
It does not make you anonymous. The sites you sign in to still know exactly who you are.

Public Wi-Fi is less dangerous than you have been told

The familiar warning — that anyone on the network can read what you are doing — described the web of around 2010. It is largely obsolete. Almost every site now uses HTTPS, which encrypts the connection between your browser and the site itself. Someone sharing the cafe network can see that you connected to your bank. They cannot read your banking.

That matters because the old warning is still the pitch used to sell VPNs, and it crowds out the things that genuinely do put people at risk.

What actually goes wrong on public networks

Networks that are not what they claim.Anyone can broadcast a network called “Free Airport WiFi”. Checking the name with staff removes the largest risk on this page.
Your device being visible to others. File and printer sharing is meant for a network where you know everyone. On a public one it exposes you.
Phishing. Fake login pages and lookalike sites are the most common way people actually lose accounts, and they work identically on any network.
Out-of-date software. Most real attacks use flaws that were patched months ago.

Where a VPN fits

A VPN encrypts everything between your device and the VPN server, which takes the local network out of the picture entirely. That is genuinely useful, and it is worth having.

But it is one layer, and a narrow one. It does not stop phishing, it does not block malicious downloads, it is not antivirus, it does not protect an account with a reused password, and it does nothing at all if you type your card details into a fraudulent page — those travel to the fraudster encrypted the whole way. Someone who believes the VPN has covered all of that is in more danger than someone who knows it has not.