Private Mac addresses in IOS14

AKEGEC

What, did Whole Foods change your provider without your consent?
Last time I bought Bree cheeses from Roseslane brand with a discount for $39.60 and I didn’t notice any changes on my phone. Are you sure about this or your phone just set to pick the best provider in your location?

@AKEGEC said in Private Mac addresses in IOS14:

What, did Whole Foods change your provider without your consent?
Last time I bought Bree cheeses from Roseslane brand with a discount for $39.60 and I didn’t notice any changes on my phone. Are you sure about this or your phone just set to pick the best provider in your location?

No. Not sure they could do that even if they wanted.

You can't get a cellular signal in the stores, you can only use their in-store wifi if you want to checkout using the Amazon App (at three stores in my immediate local area).

I'm not sure why they would do that. They can gather all the data they want because you're using their app.

johnpoz

So here is the thing get inside a big box made of concrete and steel, and wonder why you cell coverage doesn't work?

Its more likely that the company has just not put in a femtocell or microcell to provide cell inside their big faraday cage your in..

And while sure maybe you can pick up the signal from your carrier big cell tower right outside the building.. But can your phones little transmitter get back??

To the company it very well could be hey - lets help lack of cell phone internet connection, and provide wifi.. Vs putting in a femtocell..

So is the Store out to get you, are they tracking you by forcing you to use their wifi? Or is just physics and cells just do not work in side the big steel concrete box, or through the special UV light filtering and double pane filled with argon gas, special save the company on heating and cooling bills glass.

And it was better for them to provide wifi vs putting in say a femtocell to allow you to get your cell working inside their box for data..

@johnpoz Yeah. And more to the point, why would they? They can already harvest what they are interested in from your use of the Amazon app. I do NOT see conspiracy here just the need to jump on someones wifi and the relationship to the topic of this thread, random MAC addresses.

Random MAC addresses, to me, buy the privacy minded individual little. A few cases where there might (unproven, at least to me) be custom tracking ability built into the AP. If you use McDonald's or your malls wifi you are already consenting to a bunch of tracking.

Whole Foods is the only store I can't get any coverage in. I guess that says something. I also don't go to many grocery stores, I prefer the farmers market and the (lucky for me, I think) local old school butcher shop. At this point I will defer to @Derelict and agree that if you don't like it don't go there.

johnpoz

People see stuff one way, or they see it another way.. Really depends on how tight that tin foil hat is if you ask me ;)

While some of it can be believable in this day and age sure.. But then other stuff - 5 G does not give you freaking covid for example is just nut job crazy ;)

And sorry, but my some 30 years with computers and tech and working in the security field, and understanding how this stuff works.. Sorry but using a vpn or changing where you dns points to does not make you invisible..

Unless you mean like this ;)

@johnpoz If I close my eyes real tight and chant 'you can't see me' over and over I am, actually, invisible. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;)

I'm old enough to remember a lot of adult life without public WiFi and smart phones. I'm old enough to remember feeling like the oldest person in line to buy the first iPhone (at the old Union Square Apple store in SF). I'm also old enough to remember that my life was fine before all of that. I had a social life. I had a career. I communicated with friends, family and coworkers. I used public transportation and a paper train/bus schedule. i traveled through a lot of airports in many countries without being online. It was all just fine. You really have to think that at least some of this is a self inflicted wound.

johnpoz

I agree lots of stuff is very much self inflicted.. Or if not directly, turned a blind eye and now its come back to bite us in the ass ;)

You can not slowly give away your "privacy" for years and years and years... And then one day wake up and say - oh shit.. I want my privacy..

Its really really hard trying to put that genie back in the bottle..

Some of it great!! Oh so this phone gps knows exactly where I am at, so the medics can come and save me if crash on some road in the middle of nowhere..

Guess what that phone also knows your right next to a McDonalds - and it might pop up and ad wouldn't a big mac be great right about now ;)

And we know you like McD's - because on average you buy 2 of them a month on your CC. And if we just remind you how much you like like them, when your right next to one maybe we can get that up to 3 a month..

The loss of privacy as users perceive it has been a long slow slope - and sure you have been lead down the hill with some tasty sounding carrots.. Problem now is your sliding down the hill at 70 miles an hour on waxed ski's - so its pretty much impossible to stop..

Tipping points? At first it was all about the user. This sh#t was really convenient. Then it was monetized while remaining, more or less, a high value proposition for the user. Do we reach a point were the value proposition for the user isn't there anymore? Are we there now? Are users just preconditioned to think this is still a good deal for them? Honestly, there are more and more days when I really want to be off the information grid. Sure as sh#t that genie has a fist full of dollars and none of that is for you.

AKEGEC

@jwj, I suggest you watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. It's exactly what you're talking about.