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Are you sure? Not sure if there is a global setting, but if you press the gear icon next to a WiFi connection entry, there is a "privacy" option which in my cas

Are you sure? Not sure if there is a global setting, but if you press the gear icon next to a WiFi connection entry, there is a "privacy" option which in my case by default says "User random MAC-Address (default). I have that option even if developer options are turned off.

alamortsubite 3y ago
The random MAC generated by my Pixel (still holding onto Android 13) are per SSID, not connection. So maybe the behavior you observed is manufacturer-specific.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
Yes, in the per-connection settings there is a "privacy" option named "Use randomized MAC (default)". Enabling that setting (which, as noted, is enabled by default) gives you a permanent per-SSID MAC address that is used for that connection. It's listed under "Network details" on the same screen, as the "Randomized MAC address". For my local home network, my "randomized", in the sense of being more fixed and eternal than the stars, address is 76:78:c9:94:2a:94, and I cannot change it, other than by changing the setting. The only other MAC-address-related option on this screen is "Use device MAC". If I switch the randomized MAC off, and then switch it back on, I still have exactly the same "random" address that I am required to have for all of time. However, if you enable the developer options, you can find the option for "Wi-Fi non-persistent MAC randomization". It says "When this mode is enabled, this device's MAC address may change each time it connects to a network that has MAC randomization enabled." (This is all on stock Android, on a Pixel phone.) You shouldn't confuse the name of a setting with the behavior that setting controls. The name of the setting is lying to you. Sqlite's "autoincrement" column modifier is another good example of this phenomenon. It's named "autoincrement", but as the documentation for the modifier notes, you will get autoincrement functionality on a primary key column regardless of whether that modifier is set, and the behavior controlled by the setting is something entirely different. ("Autoincrement" means that values in that column, once they have ever existed, may never exist in another row, even if the row in which they originally existed has been dropped. You may notice that this has nothing to do with the meaning of the word "autoincrement". Other people have noticed that too.)

alamortsubite 3y ago

The random MAC generated by my Pixel (still holding onto Android 13) are per SSID, not connection. So maybe the behavior you observed is manufacturer-specific.

thaumasiotes 3y ago

Yes, in the per-connection settings there is a "privacy" option named "Use randomized MAC (default)". Enabling that setting (which, as noted, is enabled by default) gives you a permanent per-SSID MAC address that is used for that connection. It's listed under "Network details" on the same screen, as the "Randomized MAC address". For my local home network, my "randomized", in the sense of being more fixed and eternal than the stars, address is 76:78:c9:94:2a:94, and I cannot change it, other than by changing the setting. The only other MAC-address-related option on this screen is "Use device MAC". If I switch the randomized MAC off, and then switch it back on, I still have exactly the same "random" address that I am required to have for all of time. However, if you enable the developer options, you can find the option for "Wi-Fi non-persistent MAC randomization". It says "When this mode is enabled, this device's MAC address may change each time it connects to a network that has MAC randomization enabled." (This is all on stock Android, on a Pixel phone.) You shouldn't confuse the name of a setting with the behavior that setting controls. The name of the setting is lying to you. Sqlite's "autoincrement" column modifier is another good example of this phenomenon. It's named "autoincrement", but as the documentation for the modifier notes, you will get autoincrement functionality on a primary key column regardless of whether that modifier is set, and the behavior controlled by the setting is something entirely different. ("Autoincrement" means that values in that column, once they have ever existed, may never exist in another row, even if the row in which they originally existed has been dropped. You may notice that this has nothing to do with the meaning of the word "autoincrement". Other people have noticed that too.)