The Student Room Group

MAC Address

My sixth form is asking me for my MAC address to connect to the WIFI. I want to know what they can do or if they can track my activity
Why would they need your MAC address?
Reply 2
Original post by huraiyrah
Why would they need your MAC address?


That is what I am wondering
They want to know your MAC address so that they can connect to the WiFi? :s-smilie:
Reply 4
Original post by RichPiana
They want to know your MAC address so that they can connect to the WiFi? :s-smilie:


No so that I can connect to the Wifi
Reply 5
Your mac address should theoretically uniquely identify your device. They likely have a mac address whitelist which only allows certain devices with mac addresses on the whitelist to connect to the network. Connecting to any wifi or internet service opens you up to potential tracking.
Reply 6
Original post by 8472
Your mac address should theoretically uniquely identify your device. They likely have a mac address whitelist which only allows certain devices with mac addresses on the whitelist to connect to the network. Connecting to any wifi or internet service opens you up to potential tracking.


Ok, so they can not track me then?
Original post by HN786
No so that I can connect to the Wifi

Oh that makes sense. Your MAC address is unique to your device so they’d probably manually input that into the system so that you can connect to the WiFi. That’s how we had to connect to the WiFi at our uni halls.
Reply 8
Original post by HN786
Ok, so they can not track me then?


In a sense, yes but standard HTTPS browsing will obscure the packets you send. They could for example see you visit TSR but not what page or anything like that and it's only when using their wifi.

If you wish for extra protection and privacy of your data whilst using wifi, use a vpn with encryption.
(edited 5 years ago)

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