A serious problem with the PII serial number is that the planned use for
it
has been tracking of network communications, which isn't popular. Of
course
that don't happen now, no protocols require this and many machines don't
even have a serial number to offer.
But consider the problem if, say, some e-commerce protocol decides to
use it.
Development of stuff like that is hampered if they know it won't work on
linux
(and possibly other os'es.) Disabling the number may be too late the
day it
just means you kill your own connections to half of the internet sites.
MAC addresses aren't that problematic. They aren't sent all over the
network,
only to the nearest router. IPV6 may change that, but the V6 addresses
with
embedded MAC adresses are only one way of obtaining an IPV6 address.
There
are other ways. And you can easily get a card with a programmable MAC
address anyway.
Helge Hafting
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