IOS 14 Private Wifi MAC address

I believe it only changes when you connect to a different WiFi network.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227

• If you erase all content and settings from your device, or you use the Reset Network Settings feature, your device will use a different private Wi-Fi address the next time it connects to the Wi-Fi network.

Kurtosis12 wrote:

Your IP address can change, your MAC address will never change, it's hard coded into your device.

a new feature in iOS 14 is Mac address "spoofing"

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211227

LACAllen wrote:

Kurtosis12 wrote:

Your IP address can change, your MAC address will never change, it's hard coded into your device.

a new feature in iOS 14 is Mac address "spoofing"

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211227

Oh boy, did this one throw me for a loop. It took me two days to figure it out and now it’s toggled off. I’m pretty security conscious so my router was set to block all new devices.

Apple has given mixed messages on if that private address changes. According to the 2020 WWDC presentation, it will change every 24 hours if a user leaves and reconnects to a network.

"So this year, we're introducing private Wi-Fi address. iOS 14 will automatically manage Wi-Fi MAC addresses when joining networks. This way, the MAC address will not tie to a user's identity, and it can't be used to track them from one network to the next. A new MAC address will also be generated for networks every 24 hours, and the new private address will be used when the user leaves and rejoins the network. Users are always in control over this feature and can adjust this in their Wi-Fi settings."

Their support page claims it's a "unique, static MAC address is your device's private Wi-Fi address for that network only."

I haven't had a chance to test this on any of my own devices yet. Right now, it's a bit of a mixed message from Apple though.

accordingly to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227 iOS14 will "use a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network". IMO this is a bit awkward as it continue using the same (private) MAC address for any given network, allowing network operators to keep track of the devices. Only additional "privacy" feature is to avoid correlation among different WiFi networks. I would like to get some feedback from Apple on this :)

. I would like to get some feedback from Apple on this :)

Sorry, that won't happen here.

Apple does not provide that level of support here in this community.

https://support.apple.com/contact or

Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

According to the 2020 WWDC presentation, it will change every 24 hours if a user leaves and reconnects to a network

No mixed message. WWDC is where they discuss the roadmap. Their plans. It is not a release of a feature to production.

The support article will be what was released.

Sometimes Apple's support articles don't exactly mesh up to how exactly a feature behaves or a key detail is left out. I haven't had a chance to test whether it refreshes or not since I shut off the randomization on all my devices after the iOS 14 beta behavior threw my network into chaos. Have you verified the MAC address remains the same over multiple days with disconnecting, connecting to a different network, and then reconnecting to the original network? If it is truly static per network, that would be fantastic for network operators.

My network went into chaos also! It was a problem for sure. I thought I’d done my iOS homework to be prepared and then that happened. The company that makes my modem actually has a replacement on the way. That’s the chaos I ended up in. Currently, my feature in settings is turned off.,,

Your IP address can change, your MAC address will never change, it's hard coded into your device.

OK Thanks. Bit weird they do not do this here.

fturriaf wrote:

OK Thanks. Bit weird they do not do this here.

It's called out in the terms and conditions.

@fturriaf

They're not here to do it.

@Averix

My router only shows refreshed MAC numbers when reconnected, not every 24 hours.