What is a MAC address

A MAC address is short for media access control address, which is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment.MAC addresses are most often assigned by the manufacturer of a network interface controller (NIC) and are stored in its hardware, such as the card’s read-only memory or some other firmware mechanism. If assigned by the manufacturer, a MAC address usually encodes the manufacturer’s registered identification number and may be referred to as the burned-in address (BIA). It may also be known as an Ethernet hardware address (EHA), hardware address or physical address. A network node may have multiple NICs and each NIC must have a unique MAC address. Although intended to be a permanent and globally unique identification, it is possible to change the MAC address on most modern hardware.

Why need change MAC address

A very important reason is privacy. Just like an IP address is your ID on the internet, a MAC address is your ID on the local Ethernet network. Recently, as the rise of mobile network, with WiFi & bluetooth hotspots everywhere, the privacy implications of MAC address tracking have been the subject of increasing debate.

And according to Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency has a system that tracks the movements of everyone in a city by monitoring the MAC addresses of their electronic devices.

This video is a tutorial on how to change your mac address;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8v0DX9mBUI