[Freedombox-discuss] Thoughts on MAC Addresses

[Jonathan Wilkes]

----- Original Message -----

> From: Nick M. Daly <nick.m.daly at gmail.com>
> To: freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Monday, December 3, 2012 12:04 AM
> Subject: [Freedombox-discuss] Thoughts on MAC Addresses
> 
> Just something kicking around my head when I should be sleeping :)
> 
> *If* preventing people from being identified by MAC addresses should be
> a goal, how do we accomplish that?  The MAC address can, but shouldn't
> be set in the firmware, we can't change it or set it, from the running
> system, there.  That's good, because it means the bootloader can't be
> changed on a running system.
> 
> So, where can we set the MAC address?  The obvious solution is to put it
> into /etc/networking/interfaces, but that'll harm folks who want some
> form of anonymity.  We can use 0:0:0:0:0:0 as a default MAC address in
> /etc/networking/interfaces and folks who want to set a static one can
> edit the file to set it there, while folks who want to use a MAC changer
> can run a service hooked through Plinth.
> 
> Is this crazy?  If not, anybody want to write a Plinth interface to
> macchanger?  Anybody want to write an Augeas interface to Plinth that
> can write to /etc/networking/interfaces ?

The use case I can think of involves mobility:
1) Don't want Starbucks to associate my browsing session on their wifi
on Tuesday with my browsing session with them on Wednesday.

But for a FBX that stays put at a residence I'm not sure I see the urgency--
unless there's a virus or spyware trying to snoop for that info in which case
there are more pressing problems.

-Jonathan

> 
> Nick
> 
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