Techniques for concealing temporary identifiers (IDs) assigned to user equipments (UEs) by a wireless communication system are described. At a network entity, a first ID Assigned to a UE and possibly a salt value are transformed, e.g., based on a hash function, to obtain a second ID for the UE. An output message directed to the UE is generated based on an input message, the second ID, and the salt value (if present). The output message is sent via a common channel shared by the UE and other UEs. At the UE, a message is received via the common channel, and a salt value (if sent) is obtained from the received message. The first ID and the salt value are transformed to obtain the second ID, which is used to determine whether the received message is intended for the UE.