Why do i want to randomize my MAC Address?
Giving out your MAC address is telling people information about your computer. Knowing information gives away your privacy and gives an adversary something to go on in breaking into your system. This is not a good idea. So, giving them a made up MAC address gives away nothing. This is why you should randomize your MAC address.
What is a MAC address?
Just as an IP address is your “Logical address”, a MAC address is a “Physical address” which is tied to your network card. It can be Ethernet or WiFi. So you could have two different MAC addresses.
A MAC address of 2c549188c9e3 is typically displayed as 2C:54:91:88:C9:E3
To See your MAC address – type this in the terminal:
How to Randomize your MAC address
As you know, I just got a new computer from System 76 (not a sponsor, but their hardware is fantastic) and it has POP_OS on it. This is how to do it on POP_OS (or Ubuntu):
In the terminal type:
Go to the Network Manager ->
cd /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d
create a conf file called 00-macrandomize.conf ->
sudo touch 00-macrandomize.conf
Edit the file ->
sudo gedit 00-macrandomize.conf
Add this to the file and save ->
[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=yes
[connection]
wifi.cloned-mac-address=random
ethernet.cloned-mac-address=random
connection.stable-id=${CONNECTION}/${BOOT}
Restart the Network Manager ->
systemctl restart NetworkManager
When you check your MAC address it will be different. You can restart the network manager whenever you want to change it again. This adds a small bit more to the security of your computer.