New Member
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14 Messages
IPhone and iPad Wireless addresses different than reported by gateway and Smart Home Manager
I tried to verify MAC addresses from an iPhone and an iPad as detected by the gateway and Smart Home Manager (SHM). The gateway and SHM agree with the same address but they are different than shown on iPhone/iPad (status/general/about/Wi-Fi Address). Why?
greenep48
New Member
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14 Messages
2 months ago
Answered by Apple using Google search:
To improve privacy, your device uses a different MAC address with each Wi-Fi network.
To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device must identify itself to the network using a unique network address called a Media Access Control (MAC) address. If the device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC address across all networks, network operators and other network observers can more easily relate that address to the device's network activity and location over time. This allows a kind of user tracking or profiling, and it applies to all devices on all Wi-Fi networks.
Starting with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7, your device improves privacy by using a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network. This unique MAC address is your device's private Wi-Fi address, which it uses for that network only.
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gr8sho
ACE - Professor
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4.1K Messages
2 months ago
Yeah, it’s a dumb feature to be used on your home network as I want to track my devices by MAC, so I disable the security feature for my home WiFi connection.
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greenep48
New Member
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14 Messages
2 months ago
But doesn’t this also disable the feature when the iPhone connects to another network, like at the grocery store or a Starbucks?
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gr8sho
ACE - Professor
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4.1K Messages
2 months ago
The setting is per WiFi connection. Try it out.
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