Country: Since native protocol connections may only be used with exactly one server you now have to choose the country you want to surf from; the server to be. Welcome to Wilder (again) WRC. Is anyone else on the privacy forums? Crickets chirping. You previously asked a question about firewalls and proxies, which I attempted to answer. Keep in mind that VPNs aren't considered proxies in the traditional sense, so the way I explained using firewalls with Tor wouldn't apply to a VPN. Let me know if you need assistance using a firewall with a VPN. It's considerably more complicated. But on the plus side, as long as the VPN is running, you don't need to worry about Flash, Java, etc. Those are all anonymized by the VPN. The only problem with VPNs is when they shut down unexpectedly. Then all of your traffic may be sent without any anonymization. Regarding the MAC address, it's not really something you have to worry about unless you're using a wi-fi hotspot that isn't yours. In that case, the hotspot may have records of your MAC address. If you're using your own router, then you don't have to worry about it. The website you visit does not get your MAC address. But it shouldn't hurt anything to spoof your MAC address if you want. Edit: Just to be clear, even when using a VPN at a wi-fi hotspot that isn't yours, if you don't spoof your MAC address, it still doesn't allow the website to get your MAC address or compromise your VPN in any way. If you don't spoof your MAC address, it only means that the hotspot may keep a record of your MAC address, and all they will see is an encrypted VPN connection. So, nothing should be compromised. They're requesting your MAC address because they're using MAC filtering to control access to the WiFi network. That does not in and of itself constitute the ability to see what you're doing when you're on the school's network, and certainly not when you're at home. If this is the only requirement, and they are not also requiring you to install things (monitoring software, root certificates) then it gives them no ability at all to see what happens when you're at home, or on any network other than theirs, and even on their network, they will only have the ability to see unencrypted traffic. @Xander is partly right. Documenting your MAC address allows them to do one (or more, or all) of a few things: • MAC Address Filtering The school may be using MAC address filtering to (try) to keep unauthorized devices off of the network. While this is easily bypassed, once an attacker knows an authorized address, it does make joining the network a bit more difficult than just hopping on with a shared/stolen password. • Rogue Device Monitoring Knowing the addresses for the devices they've approved to be on the network allows them to monitor and recognize when a non-approved device joins. • Activity Monitoring & Attribution Knowing which MAC addresses belong to whom allows the school to easily attribute malicious (or otherwise unapproved) activity to a device owner. Given that they probably also have contact information for you, this allows for corrective action to be taken, and/or notifications to be sent, without having to physically track the device down. Giving them you MAC address alone does not allow them to do any monitoring or control of your device when it is not connected to their network.
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March 2019
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