Private Wi-Fi Address (BETA 4) - 24 Hours?

Question

Created Aug ’20

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Hi,

It appears BETA 4 is not rotating a private Wi-Fi Address every 24 hours?

Is this a bug in BETA 4? or is this now the new intended method, some clear guidance and documentation is needed around this 'Private Wi-Fi Address'.

The documentation here is very loose as to when it will rotate - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211227 "This randomised MAC address is your device's private Wi-Fi address for that network – until the next time it joins with a different address."

Earlier BETAs rotated the MAC address every 24 hours, BETA 4 does not appear to follow that?

I know a lot of industry discussion is around this point, please can we have some official Apple comment on the status of this feature? So that solutions can be looked at, and rolled out (or in some cases disabled)

Thanks

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Answer 1

Systems Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’20

If you feel that the documentation on this is lacking or could use some clarification, please open an enhancement request for the specific point you would like clarification on. Please follow up with the Feedback ID of your enhancement request.

Matt Eaton
DTS Engineering, CoreOS
meaton3@apple.com

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Answer 2

Averix OP

Aug ’20

This feature has made networking a nightmare for places like hotels who rely on consistent identification of a user device to provision it for Wi-Fi access. The documentation on this is lacking. There isn't any specification as to exactly when the MAC address will be rotated out. Is it 24 hours, then automatically changed? Is it 24 hours, but it keeps the old fake MAC address until you disconnected from that network and reconnect? Is it 24 hours, but you have to be disconnected from the network for a certain amount of time before it rotates the MAC address? Is there any event that an app could use to determine if this rotation happens? With that, you could notify a user that they have to re-pair or sign into the Wi-Fi again rather than having them frustrated when things don't work right. Why do some networks display a notice that this isn't supported? What is the determination for that?

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