Opting wifi addresses out of public databases

Questions
1

I’ve been chatting with Lumo about privacy options on an ongoing basis. And while it is helpful it makes a LOT of mistakes. In the process I learned a lot of things.

I learned about setting my DNS to CloudFlare or Quad9 DNS. And I feel dismayed this isn’t more public knowledge. This is not a critic of this site but all sites, forums and newspapers. Changing DNS is so easy and basic I’m just wondering why it’s not talked about more. All most articles mention is using an ad blocker. So glad to have that.

I also learned I should opt out my wifi network names from Google, Apple and Microsoft by appending _nomap and _optout to them at the end. They should also be set to hidden if possible. Have you heard of this tactic to secure wifi networks. Do you this for your own wifi networks? I’m sure many of you will say you only connect using ethernet and fair point. I am not able to do that now.

Lumo also suggested I purchase a brand new router. I recently moved and I changed my last name before I did that. Lumo says my BSSID is unchangeable and can be tracked no matter what I do so it’s better for me to simply purchase a new router. It said to change my wifi network names since they are likely in public databases. Buying a new router sounds like an extreme option so I’m wondering what you think. Are BSSIDs really a big deal? I argue with Lumo a lot. Sometimes the reasons it gives are far fetched or slim possibilities so just wondering what you think. I know devices in general can be tracked but if changing a router protects them all I would go for that. What do you think?

I want to prevent private info out of hands of low life data brokers especially the ones that public private info for sale to average people. I am doing everything I can to mitigate that.

2

this is actually counter productive, as supplicants then need to broadcast it to see if it s available, vs just passively listening for it. this causes that broadcast to occur in areas where it isn’t likely to actually exist which can cause it to become a fingerprint for when you’re not near it.

security by obscurity is 1000% useless without other layers of security backing it up.

first check to see if your current router is compatible with openwrt

bssid and ssid are both changable

in context of wifi privacy, you are far better off simply getting a trustworthy router (software) and setting it wpa3 only with a strong password than you are playing games with the ssid

3

Trust centralization.

@unwelled already defeated the main argument, but I can stack on top of it and say that Wi-Fi monitoring tools are very accessible and cheap, starting from USB monitor-mode adapters around $20-40 USD to the infamous (in security circles) WiFi Pineapple series:

That depends on your threat model.

Up to you.