Pizza Hut leaks your MAC address to 11 domains, H&M Place Montreal Trust and Discount Car Rental to six. So far, so innocuous – until you see research from Concordia University, showing some hotspots leak MAC addresses to numerous other parties. Connecting means you share your network adapter's MAC address. However, connecting to a public WiFi network has its risks. We're surrounded by internet-connected devices, in shopping malls, coffee shops, stations and more.
If you had launched the application then, then TikTok knows at least your MAC address and, through this information, the brand of mobile phone you used. You may have seen the case of Chinese app TikTok/Douyin, where news reports show that it collected users' MAC addresses for 15 months. While there is now no longer a one-stop solution to get a MAC address, it is possible by combining information from different channels. As we explain, it provides a clear path to where your priorities should lie.įirst, however, a brief overview of how a MAC address could be obtained.
This does not however mean this isn't an important point for businesses who are reliant on browser privacy. Let's turn back to our original question: are MAC addresses obtainable by sites you visit? The short answer is no, it largely isn't, Previously, technologies like Java and Flash made it possible, but, with these now deprecated or obsolete, the main remaining methods are somewhat more roundabout.
No wonder, then, that we are asked this question so frequently – if websites can obtain your MAC address, then it is a big risk. The chances of having the same MAC address as someone else are like winning the lottery. But to reach him, say to send a card, you need his phone number or postal address, which is his 'IP address' connecting him to a wider network.Ī MAC address is a unique address assigned to our Bluetooth, WiFi and Ethernet cards. You call your colleague by his name at work: this is his 'MAC address' which indicates it is him. The MAC address is also called the device's 'physical' address, indicating which device it is, whereas the IP address says where the device is connected in a network of millions. It's used in local networks by devices to communicate with each other. What actually is a MAC address?Ī MAC address is a unique address that is assigned to our Bluetooth, WiFi and Ethernet cards, buried directly in our devices. What is a MAC address?įirst up, let's look at the big picture. Sometimes this is more direct: "can a website or third party obtain my MAC address?" We investigate. One of the most frequently asked questions we get about fingerprinting is whether you can hide your MAC address or not, and what this means for privacy-conscious businesses.
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