to the metadata and content accessed by users of the hotspot, and may have legal obligations related to privacy requirements and liability for use of the hotspot for unlawful purposes. In countries where the internet is regulated or freedom of speech more restricted, there may be requirements such as licensing, logging, or recording of user information. Concerns may also relate to child safety, and social issues such as exposure to objectionable content, protection against cyberbullying and illegal behaviours, and prevention of perpetration of such behaviors by hotspot users themselves. European Union The Data Retention Directive which required hotspot owners to retain key user statistics for 12 months was annulled by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014. The Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications was replaced in 2018 by the General Data Protection Regulation, which imposes restrictions on data collection by hotspot operators. United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998: The hotspot owner must retain individual's information within the confines of the law. Digital Economy Act 2010: Deals with, among other things, copyright infringement, and imposes fines of up to £250,000 for contravention. History Public access wireless local area networks (LANs) were first proposed by Henrik Sjoden at the NetWorld+Interop conference in The Moscone Center in San Francisco in August 1993. Sjoden did not use the term "hotspot" but referred to publicly accessible wireless LANs. The first commercial venture to attempt to create a public local area access network was a firm founded in Richardson, Texas known as PLANCOM (Public Local Area Network Communications). The founders of the venture, Mark Goode, Greg Jackson, and Brett Stewart dissolved the firm in 1998, while Goode and Jackson created MobileStar Networks. The firm was one of the first to sign such public access locations as Starbucks, American Airlines, and Hilton Hotels. The company was sold to Deutsche Telecom in 2001, who then converted the name of the firm into "T-Mobile Hotspot". It was then that the term "hotspot" entered the popular vernacular as a reference to a location where a publicly accessible wireless LAN is available. ABI Research reported there was a total of 4.9 million global Wi-Fi hotspots in 2012. In 2016 the Wireless Broadband Alliance predicted a steady annual increase from 5.2m public hotspots in 2012 to 10.5m in 2018. See also Bluetooth Evil twin (wireless networks) Hotspot gateway IEEE 802.11 Legality of piggybacking LinkNYC MobileStar Securing Adolescents From