With the release of iOS 14, Apple brings many privacy improvements. One of these improvements is the ability to mask your MAC address for individual wireless networks. You can now choose to hide your MAC address for certain networks on your iPhone. In this article, we will explain what a MAC address is and how you can enable private MAC addresses for wireless networks on your iPhone in iOS 14.
Enable Private MAC Address on iPhone in iOS 14
Before we move on to our training, we need to talk about MAC addresses. Not everyone knows what it is, so I’ve added a primer on the same. However, if you don’t want to read it, you can quickly jump to the section you want by clicking the link below:
- What is MAC address?
- Why Should You Mask Your MAC Address?
- Steps to Mask MAC Address for Wireless Networks on iPhone
What is MAC address?
We all use the internet every day, but few of us think about how it all works. Have you ever asked yourself how a website sends information to your computer when you click on a link? The first part is about your IP address. Your computer sends an IP address that enables websites to send information to your computer. Think of the IP address as your home address.
But as it turns out, IP address information can only get as far as your router. Therefore, to distinguish between devices connected to your router, your devices also send a unique ID to the device called the MAC address. A MAC or “Media Access Control” address is a unique identifier assigned to a machine’s network interface.
Your router can send the information you want to your laptop using this MAC Address and will not mess with your phone or any other device connected to the same WiFi.
Why Should You Mask Your MAC Address?
Since your MAC address is device specific, you may want to mask it for privacy reasons. You can leave it unmasked on your home network, but if you don’t want to reveal your private information, it’s a good habit to mask your MAC address when using a public network.
Another use for masking MAC addresses is to bypass any filtering enabled on a network. For example, if your company disables certain websites by binding them to the Mac addresses of company-owned devices, you can change your device’s MAC address to access those websites.
I find that using a VPN to access restricted content is much easier than masking or changing your MAC address. Therefore, I recommend masking it only when using your device on a public network and you want to protect privacy. We have created tutorials for changing and masking the MAC address for other platforms as well. You can read them by clicking the links below:
- Change MAC Address on Mac
- Enabling/Disabling Private MAC Address in watchOS 7
- Change MAC Address on Android Devices
- Change MAC Address in Windows 10
Having said all that, let’s move on to our tutorial:
Steps to Mask MAC Address for Wireless Networks on iPhone
The steps are really easy. Just follow the tutorial and you’ll be done in seconds:
1. Launch Settings and tap on WiFi.
2 Here, tap the network you are connected to and Enable the toggle next to “Use Private Address”.
That’s it, you’re done. Follow the same steps if you want to disable the private MAC address on a network. Note that some users have reported that this is turned on by default on their iPhone (after updating to iOS 14). If that’s your case, go ahead if you want to continue masking.
Mask Your iPhone’s MAC Address to Improve Privacy
This is a useful privacy feature from Apple for iPhones. While we have been able to change the MAC address on Macs for a while, this feature was first made on iPhones.
If you enjoyed reading this article, check out our other articles on iOS 14 features by clicking the links below.
- iOS 14 Prompts You To Change Password When It Detects Data Breach
- What Is Power Reserve Mode in iOS 14?
- Messages in iOS 14 Gets a Major Update
- What is an App Library and How to Use it in iOS 14
These are just a few articles we’ve covered on our website. Be sure to check out the website for more such articles. Also, if you find a hidden iOS 14 feature, don’t forget to share it with us in the comments below.
