If you're the type of person who likes the fact that marketers and retailers can easily track your every move and know your location at any given time of the day when your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi, then you probably won't be happy with this new, but little publicized, feature in Apple's new iOS 8.
The feature, known as Media Access Control address (MAC) randomization, prevents marketers, retailers, and other companies from being able to make out your phone's identity. It was first identified in iOS 8 by Swiss programmer Frederic Jacobs.
In the updated operating system, while your iPhone is scanning for Wi-Fi networks, the software assigns a random, locally administered MAC address, which changes often. Since a MAC address is typically a constant, unique identifier attached to your phone’s wireless network interface, it is generally used by retailers to track foot traffic in their stores and send you offers based on your shopping habits and movements.
By generating random MAC addresses, Apple is throwing a monkey wrench into marketers' attempts to track how long you've been in a store, where in the store you've been shopping, and other types of location data that can be traced back to your iPhone.
Even though marketers will still be able to detect your device, they won't know whether or not that same device is returning to that particular location.
This feature, however, may not be an attempt by Apple to strengthen consumer privacy. The company offers iBeacon, which use Bluetooth (which also randomizes MAC addresses), as an alternative method for tracking in-store shoppers' iOS devices. With iBeacon, there are more privacy controls for the user, so it’s much easier to opt-out of participating in marketer plans.
“A few of the new features in iOS 8 make it much easier to shop on and with your iPhone, and since Apple already has a mobile user base that’s shown its willingness to spend, that’s very big news,” noted Darrell Etherington in TechCrunch.
One of these features, he points out, is with iOS 8, the iPhone’s camera can snap pictures of credit cards and automatically populate credit card information fields in the Safari browser. This means you would no longer have to copy out your credit card number, cardholder name, and expiration date every time you want to complete a transaction online. Thanks to optical character recognition, with a single click you can fill in a web form.
Top image credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com
