A security enhancement, packaged in Apple's inbound iOS 8 will allow users of the company's mobile products to pass anonymously through the nets of marketing firms that collect consumer data via Wi-Fi.
Your mobile device's MAC address identifies your handset to Wi-Fi networks, regardless of whether or not you choose to connect to an available hotspot. Analytics firms can compile lists of the Wi-Fi networks your devices has passed through, enabling retailers to determine which stores you visited and how long you stayed.
iOS 8's will scramble your MAC address to prevent parties on the other end of Wi-Fi connections from building a history of your activities. While you'll still be visible with your Wi-Fi turned on, your handset won't bear the same identity during each session.
Similar to internet ads that evolve around your browsing habits, companies who've acquired MAC address movements will direct their marketing attempts around their assumptions of your interests. As useful personalized ads appear on the surface, companies have been found to take their data collections efforts much deeper.
In a July 2013 report from The New York Times, Nordstrom, a fashion retailer, was found to be one of many retailers that combined MAC address data with video surveillance. Among many of details, the combination of MAC address data and video surveillance enabled monitors to determine a consumer's sex and how long the individual spent contemplating specific products.
The scrambling of your mobile device MAC address will undoubtedly stall the data motoring by marketing firms and retail outlets, unless they get their hands on Apple's iBeacon. The saving grace for the continued implementation of the iBeacon, which went live in December 2013, is the fact that the product only sends data.
The iBeacon requires consumers to install a companion app before they can interact with the product. But, with your permission, an app could share your interaction with the iBeacon to others.
Even with iOS 8's MAC address scrambling, your data can still fall into the hands of others when you use a Wi-Fi connection. Using an unsecured Wi-Fi network leaves your data especially vulnerable to be compromised, no matter what type of device you use; sending personal data through unsecured websites can make harvesting your personal details even easier.
