system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Won't all this free WiFi just make it 10x easier for people to steal your passwords and crap?
gpt
I presume by "free" you mean unencrypted. If you have to pay for access to WiFi network it does not mean that it is encrypted. And even If access is free, the network may be encrypted.

Yes, unencrypted public WiFi networks are very dangerous. It is very easy to perform many types of attacks in such networks. This is why popular services have TLS encryption enabled by default and you should never ignore certificate warnings.

There is free open source software available for performing traffic sniffing and many kinds of network attacks on unencrypted networks. You don't even have to understand basic networking to gain access to someone's bank account. Too many services are still ignoring security issues caused by open WiFi networks.