Is working with public Wi-Fi networks anonymous?

Question

WiFi

I'm interested in network security, I read top articles on the forum, it became clear to me that I need to spend a lot of time setting up equipment, VPN, Socks... But the most important thing is that this cannot guarantee complete anonymity, it's just a chain that starts with if desired, they can find special services.
And then I thought about public Wi-Fi networks. Why not buy a Wi-Fi adapter (a device that is capable of receiving and sending data packets), the range and pricing policy for them are different and the choice depends on how far the public Wi-Fi network we need is from us.
A kilometer from my house there are many different establishments, cafes, restaurants, with free Wi-Fi.
How safe would it be to use these networks for my black-and-gray cases?
Where is it better to buy a laptop and an adapter for this (I hang around the bazaar, pawnshop)?
Does it make sense to use a VPN and other security tools in combination?
In the event that the services go to this establishment, what methods do they have to determine my location?
And will it be possible to determine my location in the past, for example, I used their network for a month, the services went to the institution, but for more than a week I have not connected to this point and I am not going to do this in the future?
Thoughts go in the direction of the fact that they will be able to calculate the MAC address of an adapter or laptop and somehow find out the location, but I doubt it, I plan to do the job from this equipment once, and then get rid of it.
Maybe there are some suggestions and considerations for anonymity?

Answer 1

If we talk about Wi-Fi, then on the network card you can change the MAC address before connecting to a public network.
Most likely, they will not be able to calculate the location at the end of the session, especially considering that public networks usually have simple access points. Of course, if you do not use this MAC address and other tracked parameters anymore. Those. if you use a clean virtual machine and a replacement MAC, once, then there should be no traces left, unless of course you later log in to facebook.
But this is all in theory, since we do not know exactly what tools the special services have.
Here it is necessary to proceed from what information the equipment through which the traffic passes through can collect about you, and this:

• Session time
  
• MAC address of the network card
  
• IP address
  
• Virtually all of your traffic
  
• OS, browser, cookies