5 ms·
Couldn't you say the same for every coffee shop that gives random people Wi-Fi access?
by MatekCopatek 3y ago
Couldn't you say the same for every coffee shop that gives random people Wi-Fi access?
- ilyt 3y agoOf course. But "someone sit there for an hour downloading torrents" is not something they'd bother to chase vs "this guy seems to be downloading 854 torrents in last 24 hours"
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoIn Germany this was an actual issue until recent years - you were strictly liable for what transited your network.
- rvnx 3y agoYes, exactly, https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/des-patrons-de-bars-en-garde-a-vue-a-cause-du-wi-fi-offert-a-leurs-clients_AN-202009290142.html https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/des-patrons-de-bars-en-garde-...
- mikeyouse 3y agoYour coffee shop could turn over MAC addresses if the police showed up with a warrant - especially all of the 3rd party managed solutions with logging.
- derefr 3y agoYour effective wi-fi MAC address — the one other devices see — isn't fixed in stone, and in fact modern OSes build in support for automatically + continuously randomizing it: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-use-random-hardware-addresses-in-windows-ac58de34-35fc-31ff-c650-823fc48eb1bc https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-use-rando...
- gpm 3y agoNot just support it, but some platforms randomize by default https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/wifi-mac-randomization https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/wifi-mac-random... https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/security/secb9cb3140c/web https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/security/secb9cb3140c/...
- doubled112 3y agoYes. This drove me a little insane since I keep track of my devices at home via DHCP lease.
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoSame, I've had to disable it on devices of my family. I like that it's the default though. Privacy first!
- novok 3y agoWhen you actually connect to the wifi network the mac addresses stay consistent and stable on macOS / iOS at least over multiple sessions. If they didn't do that, then a bunch of stuff would probably break.
- thrill 3y agoThe MAC address anyone can change?
- MatekCopatek 3y agoTechnically, yes, but realistically most random mom-and-pop places just have a random $50 router somewhere in the corner. Would it be fair/sane/reasonable to convict such business owners if one of their customers commits a cybercrime?
- lost_tourist 3y agoWhat person doing illegal stuff doesn't randomize their MAC address?
- mikeyouse 3y agoThere’s this silly HN conceit of these super sophisticated adversaries when the reality is most people don’t know the first thing about technology or network topology and wouldn’t know why they should obfuscate their MAC in the first place. It wouldn’t catch the 1% of sophisticated black hats but that describes a small fraction of actual people doing stuff online.
- tamimio 3y agoMAC addresses are useless to track, you can change it, randomize it (I think even Microsoft windows has that feature built in too), or simply just throw away that wireless adapter used. It would be useful if for example these MAC addresses are tied to your identity, say when you buy a laptop/phone, you have to go in the process of adding these MAC addresses to be linked to you of some sort.
- devnullbrain 3y agoA more politically controversial example would be social media/'platforms', IMO. Google and Facebook are allowed to be in possession of CSAM, as long as someone else put it there.
- tamimio 3y agoAs mentioned in the article, laws protect companies.
- ReactiveJelly 3y agoIf I was looking up illegal numbers, I would not want to do so in a coffee shop where someone might see me doing so.