Wifi: I love it. What a great technology, and it just keeps getting faster. We're now talking about Gigabit wireless networks.

And when you're on the go there are tons of free hotspots waiting just waiting for your connection.

If you're out and about with your laptop/netbook/smartphone, then you probably opt to use these free wifi providers over 3g data plans.

But how safe is that? These can be minimal security internet gateways.

Assuming you are firewall protected from other devices on the same network when you're lounging at your local coffee shop, your data traffic could still be monitored and exploited by a hacker who has access to the router.

Sure, there's HTTPS and other secure mechanisms to protect our most private data. But you're not using a secure connection when you're catching up on Facebook.

Corporate and other professional types use VPN (virtual private networks) connections to access their corporate email & data, even over 3g. The iPhone provides VPN support to gain access to this base of customers.

But shouldn't we all use VPNs? In our personal lives, we don't have our own IT department with a mandate to protect Me & My Family Inc....er, I mean My Family & I Inc.

Anyway...I can see personal VPN's becoming more and more common as we shift further and further into a world where we have internet whenever and wherever we "need it".