What price for free wi-fi?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28525108

by aDevilInMe • 12 years ago

16 11 12 years ago

bbc.co.uk

roberjo• 12 years ago

Is there any technical reason our Mobiles have to broadcast the MAC address?

Could we simply disable MAC address broadcasting?

rmlewisuk• 12 years ago

iOS8 randomises the MAC address to avoid tracking like this: http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/19/why-ios-8s-mac-address-ran...

tombot• 12 years ago

Yep, so glad that this feature exists. Hope everyone else follows suit.

Have nothing against collecting data of people which choose to join the network, accept T&Cs etc but bulk connection of people passing by is not cool.

hgsigala• 12 years ago

Isn't Apple leading the beacon tech though?

gojomo• 12 years ago

iOS 8 randomizes MAC addresses while scanning. (I believe it returns to the device default MAC address when choosing to connect, though.)

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/09/mac-address-random...

mathattack3• 12 years ago

If we accept that nothing is free, then we have to ask what the best way to pay for the so-called free product. In my mind it's either some sort of usage data, or it's via taxes.

jbuzbee• 12 years ago

I would guess in almost every case, the purpose of free wifi is not to do any sort of tracking, it's just to get you in the door. I know that I've picked hotels and other establishments based on the availability of free wifi.

mathattack3• 12 years ago

Yes, though this is now becoming an expectation. I haven't done much business travel in the past few years, but now that it's ramping up again I notice how important the free wifi is.

collyw• 12 years ago

A lot of "free" on the internet is ad sponsored. That doesn't really fit your two categories.

mathattack3• 12 years ago

True. I was thinking more in the context of wifi. You're right though.

What price for free wi-fi?

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