

iOS users who would prefer to opt out of iBeacon can first ensure they have no iBeacon-aware apps installed (like the official Apple Store app), or they can disable Bluetooth.

In adding MAC address randomization during Wi-Fi probing, Apple manages to both eliminate a potential privacy leak and drive companies interested in location-based advertising toward a solution it prefers. iBeacon doesn't have quite the same goal as MAC address-based location tracking (iBeacon transmitters, for example, don't receive data from devices), but when coupled with iBeacon-aware apps that can watch a device's position, just as many privacy-invasive inferences about a person's habits can be made.
#Wireless mac address ios 9.3 Bluetooth#
Rather than using a device's MAC address, iBeacon uses low-energy Bluetooth to enable specific iBeacon-aware apps on an iOS device to serve ads or notifications based on the device's location and proximity to iBeacon transmitters. The company has its own location-based service that can be used to track users and issue alerts (or ads) to iOS devices-it's called iBeacon, and it's built in to all current-generation iOS devices. However, it's difficult to class this as a wholly altruistic move on Apple's part. A significant amount of behavioral inferences (and thus valuable marketing metadata) can be drawn from location maps built out of MAC address detection over time, and obfuscating this information is a big step toward increasing iOS users' privacy. This ought to throw a pretty significant wrench into some advertisers' and marketers' plans-if iOS 8 devices broadcast their Wi-Fi probe requests under constantly shifting unique MAC addresses, tracking devices across stores or other venues by MAC address becomes impossible. The MAC address used for Wi-Fi scans may not always be the device's real (universal) address
