[cduan]

I suppose the saving grace is that it would be pretty difficult--not impossible, but pretty difficult--to truly get away with this without detection. With all the logging that goes on, chances are that you could be identified by a MAC address, a web login of your own, a credit card swipe nearby, a surveillance camera, a cell phone in your pocket, or who knows what. There is a lot of information to be gotten with the right subpoenas.

[gloshuertos]

On many machines, MAC addresses can be changed. I obviously wasn't attempting to avoid detection since I posted about it under my real name, but anyone could pick up a $200 netbook, pay cash, walk into a Starbucks with sunglasses on, do their business and leave undetected. MAC addresses are useless if they don't tie to anything else and aren't fixed.

[netaddict]

Not just on many machines. You can change your MAC address on any manchine using GNU macchanger http://www.alobbs.com/macchanger/

[c1sc0]

It's not the lone Starbucks hacker with a laptop you need to be worried about. It's the wardrivers & honeypotters & people sophisticated enough to do a coordinated automatic harvesting effort.