Massive Drop in Location Analytics Passerby Count

[Juanchomann]

Since Jan 20 I've observed a steep decent on the Passerby count In 3 different organizations

Is there any change in how it is being calculated?

[AutomationDude]

Is there any publicly available documentation on the algorithms used for the analytics?

[Juanchomann]

Location Analytics - Cisco Meraki

[Juanchomann]

Found the Answer in this post Meraki and iOS 14 MAC Address Randomization - Cisco Meraki

on this Thread Documentation Digest: January 21st to January 25th - The Meraki Community

It has to do with the drop of randomized MAC addresses from the passerby count.

[Juanchomann]

I'm not convinced by that article (it from IOs latest update in September  and the changes in passerby count is on 20 Jan), maybe there is another explanation.

[AutomationDude]

Yeah the MAC Address randomization has been in place for a while.. probably something else but we haven't experienced it on our end, might just be a configuration issue/change on your network?

[Juanchomann]

No, two different Networks on two different organizations, no changes on the configuration log.

Org A

Org B

It seems that visitors data is no affected, but there's a Clear drop in  Passerby  sice 20 Jan.

[AutomationDude]

The fact that its two different organizations definitely has to mean that there's been some systematic change. I'm surprised there aren't more recent posts about this subject?

[cmr]

@AutomationDude same here:

[cmr]

@Juanchomann our all seemed to go right down on the 21st January, is that the same for you?

[cmr]

The article you referred to was posted on the 22nd so I think the ignoring of random MAC addresses was enabled on the 21st:

[Juanchomann]

@cmr that article is from September, and the update on 22st  is "Updated Screenshots" . Looking back until July there is noticeable growing trend in passerby until the change in Jan 20. Maybe you're right. Hope that someone can verify that.

[Nacouzi]

Haven't done any change or update on my side since in January, and still I see a massive drop..

[cmr]

@Nacouzi that is the time that Meraki stopped counting randomised MAC addresses in the passers by statistics, up until then they were counted so that is why there is a sudden drop.  Randomised MAC addresses all follow a prescribed format so it is easy to discount them.

[Nacouzi]

ok, so it explains it.

[JamesLi]

Although they are devices with randomized addresses, they are still real for a time window and can be counted. Is there the possibility to change this default as they provide over in Cisco DNA?

[Nacouzi]

It doesn't explain it alone, especially that there is a sudden drop, as if on January 21st, all Apple users updated to iOS 14 and enabled MAC randomization, which is practically improbable.

[Nacouzi]

same for me. This being said, I think it is much more accurate right now. I have a retail store, I think it used to count the cars' WIFI, now it counts only the pedestrians WIFI, which is much better in my use case.