In general, mobile devices connect to a network (e.g., a private network or a public network such as the Internet) via a networking device (e.g., an access point, router, switch, or the like). Typically, a mobile device is identified by an address when it uses the networking capabilities of the networking device. Device addresses, in particular media access control (MAC) addresses, are often used as proxies for the physical presence of users or even the identity of users, in part due to their persistent nature.
Device addresses are the basis of many tracking algorithms that promise both enhanced analytics to operators and location-based services for users. For example, the location of a mobile device can be tracked, and distinguished from other mobile devices, according to its address.
However, in some circumstances, the address of a mobile device is randomized in an attempt to protect the privacy of the user and purposefully frustrate tracking algorithms. As such, a mobile device that was once being tracked according to one address will appear as a new mobile device to be tracked with an unrecognized address after its address is randomized.
Randomization events frustrate the ability of traditional Wi-Fi localization techniques to track mobile devices according to addresses as they are no longer persistent. Randomization events also skew analytics results based on mobile device tracking by double counting mobile devices (e.g., in crowd counting scenarios) or losing the locality of mobile devices.
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