‘Anti-tracking option iOS 8 is not sufficient’

A feature in which iOS 8 smartphones generate random MAC addresses to prevent WiFi tracking is not very effective in practice, according to a security researcher. The feature only works if location services are turned off, as well as the mobile data option.

Security researcher Bhupinder Misra looked at iOS 8’s implementation of random MAC address generation. He believes that in practice few users will benefit from the privacy option and still be tracked over Wi-Fi because only a small number of iPhone owners will disable both location services and mobile data. Only under these conditions will an iPhone generate a random MAC address.

Misra further reports that the ability to generate random MAC addresses only works on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c running iOS 8. The researcher has not yet examined the new iPhone 6 models. In addition, according to Misra, Apple would not fully inform the public in which cases the anti-tracking feature works correctly.

The arrival of an anti-tracking option in iOS 8 became apparent in early June. The privacy feature should better protect Apple users against the increased use of Wi-Fi tracking, including by retail chains.