Not sure if I used the correct terms but what is the difference in security and privacy between downloading from a public wifi (or a closed wifi; with password) and mobile hotspot (sharing 4G/5G data from your phone to your computer)? Which one is recommended or does it not matter?
It depends on his threat model and what he’s trying to hide really. Public WiFi is fine, as long as you validate/check the SSL cert it’s using is from your bank and is legitimate. Using public WiFi with a VPN is more secure as long as you trust your VPN provider. If he’s asking these questions, then he’s probably not doing banking though, and should ideally be using VPN+TOR or something similar.
If the thing they are trying to do requires lots of data transfer, somehow, then TOR would not be ideal. Big Data makes TOR a bad experience. For that use case, a VPN alone is mostly enough (except the risks that can mitigated by reading other comments here)
Yeah absolutely if he’s downloading Linux ISOs, just use a VPN and you’ll be fine 99% of the time. TOR if he is doing anything else surrupticiaous. 😬