Marriott Fined $600,000 for Jamming Guests' Wi-Fi - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Marriott International will pay a $600,000 fine for jamming conference attendees' own Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, forcing them to pay hefty prices to use the hotel's own connection.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Frequent travelers often carry personal Wi-Fi hotspots — tiny devices that can connect to the Internet via cell phone towers. For $50 a month, they can connect to the Internet on the move, often avoiding hefty fees charged by hotels, airports and conference facilities. Some people upgrade their wireless data plans to make their smartphones into hotspots.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Last year, a conference attendee at the Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tennessee — which is managed by Marriott — found that the hotel was jamming devices in its ballrooms and complained to the Federal Communications Commission. In the complaint, the guest noted that the same thing happened previously at another Gaylord property. The block didn't affect Wi-Fi access in guest rooms.[/QUOTE] [url]http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/marriott-fined-600000-jamming-guests-wi-fi-25948324[/url] dayum

If you want to be evil about jamming wi-fi, at least be a little less transparent about it.

Gaylord lol

Asking for an extra fee to use shitty hotel wifi should be a crime on it's own.

Paid-for hotel wifi what's this, 2003?

Fucking fine is chum change to Marriott

What's with the purpose of fining a company for something whose profits by doing what they're being fined for exceed the fine It's fucking dumb.

I thought Wifi was free in hotels? Last time I was in some super cheap hotel they had decent free Wifi (10 Mbit/s or so). Also $50/month for 3G hotspots?

[QUOTE=mobrockers;46150377]Paid-for hotel wifi what's this, 2003?[/QUOTE] Nah, sounds like Australia

Large venue hotels are notorious about this especially in conventions to try and squeeze every last penny from their customers, but jamming devices like this? Shit that's just low.

Even major las Vegas hotels have free WiFi, and they love charging fees for everything.

I've stayed in some nice hotels, where I have always had to pay for wifi. Free WiFi seems to be just something cheaper hotels do to attract customers.

[QUOTE=Pine Cone;46151817]I've stayed in some nice hotels, where I have always had to pay for wifi. Free WiFi seems to be just something cheaper hotels do to attract customers.[/QUOTE] I've been to a lot of places in Europe and stayed in a wide range of hotels, yet the only time when I recall paying for wifi was in the US.

[QUOTE=mobrockers;46150377]Paid-for hotel wifi what's this, 2003?[/QUOTE] I went to a 5 star hotel on the water in Chicago that tried to charge me for wifi. Fuck you Swissotel

Meh, I worked in Marriott previously. Sad to know they do this shit, but they do have some really nice staff.

sue them for naming their resort gaylord

[quote]Gaylord[/quote] haha

[t]http://cache.marriott.com/Images/Brands/GE/Gaylord_Brand_Landing/gaylord-hotels-brandsite-carousel_img2.jpg[/t] holy shit that name is for real that's the real crime here, the name or the wifi jamming?

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;46150459]What's with the purpose of fining a company for something whose profits by doing what they're being fined for exceed the fine It's fucking dumb.[/QUOTE] Corporate fines in a nutshell

My dad told me this story from his trip. He came back yesterday and told me his hotspot wasn't working and that these guys were charging $800 for three days of WiFi for the companies that were there. [editline]4th October 2014[/editline] He was at the Nashville one I believe

I've yet to stay in a hotel that charges for internet. I didn't even know it was still a thing.

the marriott i stayed at in new orleans made you pay $12.95 a day for 3mbps download wifi. fuck them [editline]4th October 2014[/editline] still better than gogo wifi which charges $3.00 for 30 minutes of wifi in a plane

I misread ballrooms as bathrooms and was wondering what purpose jamming wifi in there was.

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;46150459]What's with the purpose of fining a company for something whose profits by doing what they're being fined for exceed the fine It's fucking dumb.[/QUOTE] How do you know fines don't actually hurt companies?

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;46153054]How do you know fines don't actually hurt companies?[/QUOTE] They're one of the biggest hotel chains in the fucking world, 450 hotels all over the world, with 8 brands to cater to the piss poor shitheads to the really classy fuckers. They make that amount of money in less than a day, its not gonna hurt them much. When I used to work at the Marriott, Hotel Occupancy rate never went below 80% When guest comes for food, its constantly more than a 100 pax everyday, and each person is about $30-$60 when it comes to food.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;46153054]How do you know fines don't actually hurt companies?[/QUOTE] Well when their net income is almost [url=http://news.marriott.com/2014/07/marriott-international-reports-2014-second-quarter-results.html]two hundred million dollars in a quarter[/url] I doubt a fine not even one two-hundredth of that will affect them, in the same way a 500 dollar fine won't affect a person with an income of 400,000.

This shit is why I just stay at Best Westerns or the like. There's no charm but you know what you're going to get.

[QUOTE=Inplabth;46153753]Frankly I'm not sure why exactly they got fined. It wasn't jamming, it was deauthorizing other hotspots. I won't defend them because it's a scummy thing to do but it isn't illegal. Deauthing is used fairly widely to force people at work or other places to use the company wi-fi. If we're going to go after Marriott we need to go after them too, as well as any college campuses that have the same practice, and then on top of that companies like Cisco need to be fined for selling jamming devices.[/QUOTE] Yes, it's illegal. You aren't allowed to block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications. Wifi is no exception.

[QUOTE=Zeke129;46153878]Yes, it's illegal. You aren't allowed to block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications. Wifi is no exception.[/QUOTE] I guess I should stop wearing my tinfoil hat then.

[QUOTE=Inplabth;46153753]Frankly I'm not sure why exactly they got fined. It wasn't jamming, it was deauthorizing other hotspots. I won't defend them because it's a scummy thing to do but it isn't illegal. Deauthing is used fairly widely to force people at work or other places to use the company wi-fi. If we're going to go after Marriott we need to go after them too, as well as any college campuses that have the same practice, and then on top of that companies like Cisco need to be fined for selling jamming devices.[/QUOTE] Generally that's for security reasons. Jamming a network that is meant to impersonate or create a hole in the company network is an entirely different thing, which is what deauth systems do. This was jamming legitimate customer owned networks. The law is pretty grey when it comes to physical jamming vs exploiting a protocol weakness legitimately. But I'm sure the FCC isn't going to offer them any benefit of the doubt.