Microsoft released a new Insider preview build last night. Build 14342 most notably brings new features to Microsoft Edge and improvements to Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. At the bottom of the list of other changes and fixes in the new build announcement on the Windows Experience blog, Gabe Aul also announced that the Wi-Fi Sense feature has been removed.
We have removed the Wi-Fi Sense feature that allows you to share Wi-Fi networks with your contacts and to be automatically connected to networks shared by your contacts. The cost of updating the code to keep this feature working combined with low usage and low demand made this not worth further investment. Wi-Fi Sense, if enabled, will continue to get you connected to open Wi-Fi hotspots that it knows about through crowdsourcing.
Beyond blaming the code maintenance, it is explained that there was also low usage and low demand. As I wrote last June, there was actually demand to remove the feature. Allowing one person access to your network does not imply that they should then automatically share the credentials to access the wireless network with their social network. Facebook, Outlook.com, and Skype contacts could spread your network access considerably larger than you expect and network access is usually the first defense.
The only way to prevent Microsoft from using the Wi-Fi Sense feature to share your network credentials was to rename the SSID with an ‘_optout’ on the end.