Hi, I was surprised, that connection to a free wifi was done always with the same mac address. I read somewhere, that stock android 10+ should automaticaly randomize MAC, but my Samsung S5 (G900F) with e/OS/ 1.14-r (android 11) connects always with the same MAC address, probably the real one! I tried to tap mac under wifi, but it cannot be changed. Can I enable randomization somehow? I’d do whatever, even rooting the phone, not changing mac is really bad for a privacy oriented os. Will root help me, or is there another way? Thank you.
Turn on developer options, there should be an option ;- ) Read also
Wait, that’s not on by default? For a privacy focused os for everyday users, that definietly should be on! We should file a bug if that’s not the case.
(Can’t check on mine right now what the setting is since it’s temporarily unusable due to a launcher bug)
That setting could be moved into Advanced Privacy, maybe with the option to disable it for specific wifi networks like a home or office network where one might want to use the actual MAC address.
it’s up to the wifi driver to support this and thus device dependent. Google mandated for Android 10 release devices to have it implemented. If device launched with earlier version, vendors aren’t obligated to implement it with release updates. You’ll need to dig into if that happened for the G900F
- MAC randomization - #2 by tcecyk
- https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/7199 (feedback on FP3 says Fairphone itself did implement this with Android 11 in their build. So if /e/ ships the same wifi firmware blob it could enable the setting in its device overlay config)
2 Likes
Thanks, I found smething there, which I’d translate like “Improved MAC randomization”. But sadly it has no effect 
I see still the same MAC and I have also confirmed this by looking into wifi router logs.
The link unfortunately says “… turned on MAC adress randomization in the developer options but AFAIK it doesn’t work probably due to the age of drivers”.
Thanks for the links. And is there some solution? I have read it, I do understand, that I’m not alone. But I have found no solution.
Another tips, how this can be done? I have goose bumps knowing I’m connecting to public wifi networks with my real mac. I’d not mind to change mac in twrp, adb, or whatever, but please tell me how to do that.
This topic was automatically closed after 91 days. New replies are no longer allowed.