On 04/21/2011 04:13 PM, /dev/rob0 wrote:
I don't understand. A MAC address is only relevant in a physical
network segment. You simply *must* give a MAC address to hosts on
your segment in order to have networking. But beyond that segment,
there's no meaning to a MAC.
Sure, someone can look it up and find out what kind of NIC or
embedded device you bought. But no, I don't see a "serious privacy
concern" here. Am I missing something, or are you?
The privacy issue is just that. You don't want some stranger being able to
look an network traffic, and determine what type of computers you own. You
also don't want them to realize that the MAC address you normally use at home,
is now connecting from Star Bucks, so it is a good time to go rob your house of
all those other nice computers...
Really, it is understandable when you think about it. Really the big problem
is we tend to have things reversed. Intranets should use non-routable IPv4
addresses which remain fixed. Addresses used on the internet should be either
randomized IPv6 addresses (if we aren't running services) or fixed IPv6
addresses for hosting services. If everyone did it that way there would be no
privacy issues. But it means then, everything would have to remain dual
stacked...
Bill
