Randomized MAC Addressing in iOS 14 and later

iOS 14: Changes to Fing

On September 16th 2020, Apple released the latest version of its operating system for mobile devices,  iOS 14. This update introduced new restrictions on the network identifiers shared by devices in order to better protect the privacy of users.

Starting from iOS 14 (and from iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7), all devices equipped with the latest version of the Apple mobile/wearable operating system mask their real MAC address every time they connect to a Wi-Fi network, identifying themselves on the network using a randomized MAC address.

This change is relevant to Fing users in the following ways:

• Fing Agent, Fing Desktop and Fing for Android notifiy the device as new whenever the device's MAC address changes.
• Regarding Fingbox's Digital Presence, the presence device is sometimes identified as 'new'. The tracking of the 'old' device will automatically be lost because Fingbox will no longer detect the status change (even though in reality the device remains the same).
• There is no impact on the iOS version of Fing. Since the release of iOS 11, IP addresses are used to index devices connected to a network. Therefore, the introduction of MAC addresses randomization does not impact the app in any way.

Improve device recognition

To improve the recognition of new devices and continue to monitor changes in status, disable the use of Private MAC Addresses for your network on your own iOS devices.

Click MAC Addresses and Private Addressing for more information.

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