On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:27:22 -0000 (UTC), William Unruh wrote:

So, my key question is *when* does a mobile device broadcast it's MAC
address (BSSID & SSID)?

Those have nothing to do with the MAC addresses. And the Mac address of
a device ( a wireless card-- that is what a MAC address is the address
of) can be changed at will

Thank you for trying to help answer the question, as I realize answering
such a deeply technical question involves risk - and we need to communicate
so that we don't waste time on completely meaningless tangents.

First off we have to agree on some terms, and which are meaningful for the
purpose of *this* thread:

- SSID: This is *not* very meaningful for the purpose of this thread!
The SSID is only meaningful in that you can "do things" with your SSID
which tell Google to do *other things*, e.g., you can append "_nomac" to
the end of the SSID and Google promises to *drop* your information from its
databases. But since SSIDs are not generally unique, the SSID is not the
focus of *this* discussion.

- BSSID: This *is* the focus of this discussion, where each router has
*multiple* BSSIDs (aka MAC addresses) and where the focus of this
discussion is *only* on the one unique MAC address that is transmitted in
companion with the SSID of an access point!

It's critical that you understand that your statement is patently incorrect
that the router MAC addresses that *Google* is collecting using your
neighbor's Android device are easily cloned.

The MAC addresses that Google is collecting using your neighbor's poorly
configured Android cellphone are *not* easily changed (you have one per
each radio, e.g., 2.4GHz and 5GHz, for example).

These radio access point MAC addresses are NOT easily cloned!
This has been covered in this newsgroup in detail in the past.

However, even if the router's MAC address could be cloned (it can't, at
least not without desoldering and other heroic actions), it *still* would
be collected by your neighbor's poorly configured Android device.

So, it doesn't matter that you can't clone the MAC address that Google is
collecting by using your neighbor's Android device to automatically send
that information to Google periodically during the day.

The fact is that all poorly configured Android devices are automatically
sending Google throughout the day *your* MAC address of your router.

NOTE: While I'm completely aware that turning off SSID broadcast is
possible (and that it's not useful for security), we are assuming for this
purpose that the SSID is broadcast by the router.

Does a mobile device broadcast its MAC address when acting as a hotspot,
for example?

No.

I realize you are trying to help - but I must be blunt, since this *is* the
critical question.

Since this *is* the critical question, a simple "No" is not enough,
especially since your previous statements in this post show that you
misunderstood completely the question and the situation.

I'm sorry if that sounds mean, but, a simple "No" is not believable under
those two circumstances.

The correct answer might still be "No", but you don't understand the
question yet, nor the technical situation, so a "No" all by itself doesn't
help.

My key question is *when* does an Android cellphone broadcast the MAC but
most people get all hung up about MAC addresses - so I'll dumb down the
question to ask "When does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?".

Q: Under what conditions does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?
NOTE: I don't care about the SSID - I care about the MAC - but people get
hung up about MAC addresses so I'll ask it in the simpler form.

Horace Algier wrote:

I'll dumb down the question

Doesn't matter if the hat says "Alice J", "Aardvarks" or "Horace",
people don't want to go over the same ground again ...

Horace Algier ... oops I mean "Aardvarks"... oops I
mean "Paul M. Cook"... oops I mean "VPN User"... oops I mean "Joe
Clock"... oops I mean "Marob Katon" ... oops I mean "Chris Rangoon"...
wrote:
My key question is *when* does an Android cellphone broadcast the MAC but
most people get all hung up about MAC addresses - so I'll dumb down the
question to ask "When does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?".

Q: Under what conditions does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?
NOTE: I don't care about the SSID - I care about the MAC - but people get
hung up about MAC addresses so I'll ask it in the simpler form.

You don't ask a dumbed down question, but a dumb question and your
'question' isn't a question, but a false statement.

HTH.

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 08:54:56 +0100, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

Horace Algier ... oops I mean "Aardvarks"... oops I
mean "Paul M. Cook"... oops I mean "VPN User"... oops I mean "Joe
Clock"... oops I mean "Marob Katon" ... oops I mean "Chris Rangoon"...
wrote:
My key question is *when* does an Android cellphone broadcast the MAC
but
most people get all hung up about MAC addresses - so I'll dumb down the
question to ask "When does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?".

Q: Under what conditions does an Android cellphone broadcast an SSID?
NOTE: I don't care about the SSID - I care about the MAC - but people
get
hung up about MAC addresses so I'll ask it in the simpler form.

You don't ask a dumbed down question, but a dumb question and your
'question' isn't a question, but a false statement.

HTH.

It's a xposting troll.

--
Bah, and indeed, Humbug