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Tracking Protection In Wi-Fi Networks Coming Soon To Linux
prisoninmate writes: Fedora contributor and NetworkManager developer Lubomir Rintel explains how your devices are being identified on a network by a unique number that most of us know by the name of MAC address. Same goes for mobile networking, as your laptop's or mobile phone's MAC address is, in most cases, broadcasted everywhere you go before you even attempt a connection to a wireless network. And that's a problem for your privacy. The solution? Randomization of the MAC address while scanning for Wi-Fi networks. Apple is already using this method on iOS 8 and later mobile operating systems, and so is Microsoft in Windows 10, so Linux users will ["likely"] get it in the upcoming NetworkManager 1.2 release.
Please don't. My company is building tools that help businesses understand their customers through WiFi. We're having to waste a lot of time building heuristics that determine whose MAC switched when they blip off and a new one randomly appears. We're barely off the ground with this stuff, now we're probably going to have to build new heuristics for Android devices.
I will say that the good part of this is the product managers now understand we can't track real people, which was never our intent, but was possible given the long-lived nature of MACs. I just wish they'd randomize in the middle of the night when charging.
This is automatically done when scanning for WiFi access points, which your phone or laptop or whatever is probably doing constantly. When you connect you use whatever MAC rules you normally have.
This is about not advertising your real MAC address to APs you have no intention of connecting to, so third parties (NSA and friends) cant scatter a bunch of APs around town to track your movements.