station list wireless network mac address mode rate signal

Several companies were reportedly logging and tracking the addresses of nearby devices in unassociated states. The MAC address is a Layer 2 (L2) address used to identify the source (sender) and the destination (receiver) of frames by most 802 network technologies, including Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.īack in 2013, the privacy implications of targeted probe requests started to become widely publicized.

Unique MAC Addresses Enable User Privacy Infringement in Wireless NetworksĮvery Wi-Fi radio has a unique 48-bit identifier called a MAC address that is assigned by the manufacturer. As a countermeasure to this privacy threat, OS developers are anonymizing MAC addresses, thereby raising technical concerns among network operators. Wi-Fi access points, however, can monitor device locations without user consent by means of MAC addresses. Although a growing number of applications make use of location data, operating systems (OSs) provide the ability to turn off location services provided by the GPS or cellular/Wi-Fi connectivity. In the era of mobility, location tracking is a major privacy concern for portable device users.

Station list wireless network mac address mode rate signal