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how can you tell when viewing webpages, which ones are taking down your device info like MAC address, when you use an iphone or ipad? Or how to prevent that information being taken?

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  • How do you assume that any of the websites you visit, take your device's info?
    – Matt Komarnicki
    Jul 22, 2015 at 0:44
  • @slick most websites do register some device info, just not your MAC address
    – Jaime Santa Cruz
    Jul 22, 2015 at 1:55

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It isn't possible for a website to get the MAC address from an iPhone or iPad.

For that to work, Apple would have to expose that information through JavaScript. They haven't done that. Don't take my word for it though, try a web search for something like "javascript get ios mac address" and you'll find lots of people asking how to do it and lots of people replying that it isn't possible (except in Internet Explorer on Windows in some very specific conditions).

Years ago you could get the MAC address of an iPad or iPhone if you wrote an actual iOS application. However Apple changed that in 2013 with iOS 7 as detailed here.

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Websites in general can't get your MAC address:

The MAC address, by TCP/IP standards, is never communicated outside of the local-area network to which it pertains

Some websites could theoretically obtain that kind of information via ActiveX, or a Java applet, but neither is available on stock iOS Safari.

If anonymity is your concern, there are multiple ways to uniquely identify a website visitor that don't need a MAC address. WSJ has a nice collection of articles, and many others too.

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As other answers said...

Websites may NOT take your MAC address.

If Privacy is your concern, find a VPN app on the App Store that guarantees your privacy. This may make your connection slower. In addition, if you find a bad VPN app, then the server might actually be recording your data.

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  • Maybe I'm missing something but this doesn't make sense to me. How does visiting a website over a VPN connection prevent that website from doing anything?
    – Alistair McMillan
    Jul 23, 2015 at 10:42
  • @AlistairMcMillan the site can't get your IP address.
    – DDPWNAGE
    Jul 23, 2015 at 18:17
  • I assume you've heard of Cody Kretsinger?
    – Alistair McMillan
    Jul 23, 2015 at 18:26
  • @AlistairMcMillan nope, I haven't.
    – DDPWNAGE
    Jul 23, 2015 at 18:28

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