We learned this past week that Apple’s iOS 8 will offer the ability to randomize the WiFi MAC address while it scans for wireless networks. While the feature itself seems appealing from a privacy perspective it has me seeking to understand how they intend to technically implement this feature.

I’ve seen more than my fair share of duplicate IP address issues over the years and I’m wondering how Apple is going to implement this feature to prevent duplicate MAC addresses? And in that same thought how is this change going to impact other systems. It’s obviously going to impact those solutions that promise to track customers through retail spaces. Although the proposed change by Apple only covers the WiFi SSID scanning, once you connect to a guest/public hotspot iOS 8 will use the real WiFi MAC address which can then be tracked. How will this impact an Access Point or Wireless LAN Controller? What if a wireless network utilizes band steering and probe response spoofing?

Anyone have any technical details regarding how they will actually randomize the MAC address?

Cheers!