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When you hit up a site, such as cnn.com, does the TCP/IP packet contain the MAC address of your network card?

Could cnn.com theoretically record my MAC address?

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In IPv4: Nope. They will see the MAC of the device which forwarded the packet to the server, likely their border router.

In IPv6, the 64 bit "host" part of the full 128 bit address is often automatically generated from the MAC address, and hence might be visible to the server one connects to. See also How to avoid exposing my MAC address when using IPv6?

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+1 for correct answer, and bonus reminder of what mac they would see. – Ian Boyd Feb 27 '10 at 2:36
@Ian Boyd & @Jonn T So where is the furthest point in the chain that my mac address would be seen? My ISP? – AngryHacker Feb 27 '10 at 2:41
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MAC addresses only exist on Ethernet networks. MAC addresses stop at your Cable/DSL modem (so your ISP could see that). Even that will only see the MAC address of what it is connected to, if that's a router it sees the MAC address of the router and not your computer's. – shf301 Feb 27 '10 at 3:17
@shf301, true, for IPv4. Not so much for IPv6 (like I edited into the answer). – Arjan Feb 4 '11 at 11:21
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