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I'm a technologist and I didn't know that devices advertise their MAC addresses when scanning for WiFi until someone in that business told me. I always thought
by bsimpson 12y ago
I'm a technologist and I didn't know that devices advertise their MAC addresses when scanning for WiFi until someone in that business told me. I always thought it was the other way around (base stations advertise themselves and devices affiliate with ones they recognize).
Though accurate, "clueless" is a bit harsh. I don't expect the general public to know the implementation details of WiFi any more than I expect them to understand how a catalytic converter works. The beauty of an abstraction is that you get to reap its benefits without understanding precisely how it works.
- lsaferite 12y agoActive scanning for known base stations is a 'feature' most people don't know about either. You phone actively tries to connect to base stations it knows, opening you up to attacks from devices like the WiFi pineapple.
- userbinator 12y agoThe beauty of an abstraction is that you get to reap its benefits without understanding precisely how it works. ...and get to be manipulated and screwed over by the people who do. While I don't expect the general public to know the details of WiFi down to e.g. the level of the 802.11 spec, I think that some general ideas, like the difference between passive/active scanning, are both simple enough to be understood by analogy and critical to privacy that they should be known more prominently.