How To Detect If You Emit a MAC Address

Step-by-Step Instructions

After I published a newsletter inviting people who emit a MAC addresses to contact me, I received a bunch of e-mails, but none of you said “I emit a MAC Address”. Instead, you all asked:” How to determine if I emit a MAC address”.

Below is a step-by step guide of how MAC address emission was detected in the study I published on Academia.edu

You will need a help of another person to verify your emission.

Steps:

1. Obtain an Android phone.

2. Download “Bluetooth Scanner” app from the Google Play store. Here is what the app icon looks like.

3. Remove a SIM-Card.

4. Disable wi-fi.

5. Enable Airplane mode.

6. Enable Bluetooth.

7. Enable BLE in the Developer’s Mode:

   1. Go to Settings > About phone.

   2. Scroll down to Build number.

   3. Tap Build number seven times. ...

   4. Once developer options are activated, you will see a message that reads, You are now a developer.

   5. Go to System

   6. Go to Developer Options

   7. Select “Show Bluetooth Devices Without Names”. Bluethooth devices without names (MAC addresses only) will be displayed. Here is what it looks like on the phone:

      

8. Find to a nature preserve where no MAC address emitting devices are expected, and scan the environment using your app. (Don’t bring your phone, iwatch, Fitbit, anything that emits MAC addresses, including car keys, FOBs. If you have a pacemaker, it will show on your scan. We excluded people with pacemakers from the study.)

9. If no MAC address is detected on the scan, you are not emitting a MAC address.

10. If a MAC address is detected, and shows that the vendor is unknown, and it says Protocol: Low Energy (BLE), note the Signal Strength (RSSI) expressed in dBm.
    Example as below:

    

11. Leave the phone with your assistant (who hopefully does not emit a MAC address), and walk away, about 50 feet.

12. Once you are 50 feet away, your assistant should re-scan the environment, and note the Signal Strength of the MAC address. If it is weaker, that’s an indication, that the MAC address is being emitted by you.

13. Return to your assistant, and scan the environment once again. If the Signal Strength for the MAC address returned to the original value, you are the source of the MAC address emission.