

Unless you turn Wi-Fi off on your phone before you leave your house, your phone is automatically scanning for available Wi-Fi networks nearby as you move around. Wi-Fi Scanning Broadcasts the MAC Address This applies to laptops and tablets just the same when they’re scanning for Wi-Fi networks, too. The problem is how Wi-Fi works and especially how the smartphones we carry around in our pockets work. You can change a device’s MAC address in software, but very few people do this. A network can easily track whether you’ve connected before and assign settings unique to your device. This lets networks you connect to identify the device.įor example, at home, you could adjust your home router’s settings to assign static IP addresses to your devices based on their MAC addresses.

This number is designed to be unique to the hardware.
#Android mac address sniffer Pc
RELATED: How (and Why) to Change Your MAC Address on Windows, Linux, and MacĮach physical network interface - whether it’s a wired Ethernet card in a desktop PC or a Wi-Fi chipset in a smartphone - ships with a unique MAC address.

Why Your Devices Have Unique MAC Addresses
