Ars TechnicaOct 26, 2023

iPhone privacy feature hiding Wi-Fi MACs has failed to work for 3 years

“From the get-go, this feature was useless,” researcher says of feature put into iOS 14.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/iphone-privacy-feature-hiding-wi-fi-macs-has-failed-to-work-for-3-years/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise

“From the get-go, this feature was useless,” researcher says of feature put into iOS 14.

Ars Technica
Show threadRagashingo

@arstechnica The quote about the feature being useless seems pretty extreme... and wrong.

If I understand correctly, it DID successfully rotate the MAC and make it very difficult to track iPhones walking past a store, for instance. It's only when an iPhone CONNECTS TO a network that it would inadvertently send its original MAC.

I always thought the main point of the feature was to limit the ability to track users as they walked around in public, so it seems pretty successful, actually.

Oct 27, 2023 at 12:00amWeb
Show threadJean-Pierre HöhmannOct 27, 2023
@Ragashingo @arstechnica Yes and no. The usage of random MACs while scanning and not connected to a network is a separate feature that already existed beforehand. This new feature was specifically about pseudonymizing the MAC when connected, so it is fair to say that the feature was basically useless.
Show threadJean-Pierre HöhmannOct 27, 2023
@Ragashingo @arstechnica Then again, they got that wrong in their own article, so… 🤦‍♀️