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Comment by DavideNL | Hacker News Reader

I assume this detects "new devices" by its MAC address?

Seems unreliable, with modern devices changing to a new random MAC address frequently.

Then your data would be spammed with new devices constantly?

In general "private" WiFi doesn't work like this. Instead it's per SSID. So on iOS [0] and Android [1], a new private MAC is generated once per SSID and preserved until network settings are reset. This is why you won't generally have issues with connecting to and leaving a captive portal (hotel, airplane, etc).

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/102509 [1] https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/wifi-mac-random...

iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia support rotating MAC addresses, and it's configurable on a per-network basis.

It's always been configurable on a per-network basis. Apple has changed it to some odd, assumptive, defaults now because their new approach will break a number of common network situations.

Also, if you read through comments on how it's been working in the betas it doesn't seem as though it's been working as expected for a number of folks. The Android implementation is a better design, IMO. Persistent / non-persistent "privacy" is an easier follow. Also, many folks want the capabilities of both modes depending on the networks they're connecting to and the devices they're managing touching specific networks. I feel as though Apple is going backwards in a way with this new change, I won't be upgrading to iOS 18 or macOS Sequoia for the foreseeable future though given all the things Apple is adding.

For reference: https://blog.elevensoftware.com/ios-18s-rotate-wi-fi-address...

Thanks. I would suggest you reconsider deferring updates. Apple does not consistently backport security updates to prior versions of macOS.

I use this and this was the first issue I encountered. And I fixed it by making an exception for my home network.

Now if anyone showed up with random MAC addresses, well, it ain't me :)

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