That might be the best reason to buy your own modem! Thanks for sharing, this makes me want to check out my family member's modems.
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AirTag Anti-Stalking Measures 'Just Aren't Sufficient' Says Washington Post Report
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You'd be able to track them if they pass by other people with the Tile App installed and running in the background though, no? That seems like the more likely case (though not super likely, I get it).
Interesting.
I do understand that the tile network is improving, and potentially it is getting better at having more regular location updates.
I looked at getting some tiles a few years ago and didn’t purely because all the reports of the network were so poor. I assume it has improved, and my comment was rather flippant.
However, people are questioning why these questions weren’t asked if tile years ago, so my point stands for that. You really wouldn’t have got very far a few trying to use one for tracking people then (even if it is better now).
If a person has a phone then the chances of a stalker being able to track them with an airtag is basically 100%. They don’t have to rely on people having a specific app running or certain types of modem. That in itself is a bit difference between tile and airtags, and the reason why tile has been able to ignore privacy concerns with little or no criticism but Apple had to have them baked in on launch.
No, the Find My feature was never designed to track a moving Airtag. It was designed to locate a stationary airtag, as in keys that fell out of your pocket in a park, or a purse / wallet left in a place that you visited. If an object you are tracking is stationary, you WILL get its location because chances of someone with an iPhone passing by a frequently visited area within a reasonable amount of time are quite high. All you will need is one iPhone user being in proximity to your lost item to get its location.
The equation changes quite a bit when the object is moving. To track a moving object you will need a constant flow of GPS data to plot out the movement. If the person with your Airtag on him/her doesn’t own an iPhone, you will be getting occasional hits on the GPS location of a moving Airtag when an iPhone user passes in close proximity. This is not enough information to track the Airtag or stalk someone.
That’s why using the Airtag for tracking a dog is not the most effective way to find a missing dog because the dog is constantly on the move, and the dog doesn’t have an iPhone attached to it. So, you will get occasional hits on the dog’s location, and you will most likely be able to pinpoint a neighborhood where it’s on the loose, but by the time you get to the last reported location of the dog, the dog most likely won’t be there.
You can find where someone lives by following them - up to the actual condo/apartment building or the house. I’m not even addressing the fact that someone’s address can be found on the Internet for a $20 fee. There is no need to plant an Airtag on someone to be able to find out where they live. If “stalking” means being able to track someone’s movements, an Airtag planted on an Android user will not be a very good tracking device for the aforementioned reasons.
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It seems like, if you're afraid of being stalked, you should always have a small child with you; apparently they will be able to detect the AirTag and eat the battery. Problem solved.
Correct. This is a problem with the privacy protections that airtags currently offer.
And a difficult one to solve I imagine.
I find a lot of these conversations frustrating.
- A readily available GPS tracker is more efficient and better than a Airtag for tracking and they can track moving objects.
- If you don't 'have control over your phone' then an abuser will just use the phone to track you and again, that's a better solution.
BTW. A friend of mine caught his wife cheating by using "find my.' He dropped his work phone in the pouch behind her seat and used 'Find My' on his personal phone to track her straight to a hotel.
- A readily available GPS tracker is more efficient and better than a Airtag for tracking and they can track moving objects.
- If you don't 'have control over your phone' then an abuser will just use the phone to track you and again, that's a better solution.
BTW. A friend of mine caught his wife cheating by using "find my.' He dropped his work phone in the pouch behind her seat and used 'Find My' on his personal phone to track her straight to a hotel.
Why should android support a Apple item with software support. Apple needs to fix this. No one else
I’m usually not the first to defend Apple in stuff but this type of idiotic sensationalist article is what’s wrong with the media. Rather than focus on real abuses (like governments trouncing rights) they focus on companies who actually have a pretty good track record for concern about privacy.
as I read this piece, the author detailed all the security features to prevent unknown tracking. He included a bit about physically muffling the airtag to quiet it. A person not knowing they are being tracked can’t knowingly muffle the device. And if a perpetrator tries to muffle the device they will run the risk of impacting its radio signal power.
And tile has far less measures in place.
as I read this piece, the author detailed all the security features to prevent unknown tracking. He included a bit about physically muffling the airtag to quiet it. A person not knowing they are being tracked can’t knowingly muffle the device. And if a perpetrator tries to muffle the device they will run the risk of impacting its radio signal power.
And tile has far less measures in place.
Damn… Sorry to your friend.
All this controversy about AirTags… Apple is definitely going to issue a statement or software update or maybe even pull the plug.
they also don't have a smoke alarm, which makes them useless in a fire. i'm surprised no one has written about that yet...
If only we knew the on/off switches actually did turn it off. That’s the transparency we as users are missing. How do we know turning off the feature doesn’t just turn off the notifications and not the use of our phones to call Apple? If it’s anything like turning off background refresh, than it doesn’t work.
I could and then Google would use my life history to make money off everything I did on my device. It’s time to wake up. These companies control too much. From our government officials down. They are the greatest marketing machine the world has ever seen and have convinced most people they are for the greater good. That might have been the case in 2005-2008, but now it’s only about control and money.
True, but those devices don't mesh with a broad network that lets every nearby phone with certain features active it is nearby. What is more interesting for me is if it is possible to see if there is an airtag nearby using your iPhone and then with the hidden screen being able to garner enough info to see where the airtag might be. If Apple used a non-unique identifier in the stream that can be determined, combine that with a photo and you know have a way to implement 3rd part tracking.
True, but the Find My network makes it interesting to see if it can be hacked.
The biggest proof of the silliness of the article is that most people in this thread agree that it’s silly. Now that is newsworthy.
Wasn't it just a day or two ago that this forum was complaining that you can't track a stolen item because of the anti tracking features?
Point is bluetooth anti-surveillance features should be standard on all phones. Nothing to do with AirTags. We should get notifications about bluetooth devices that aren't paired to a phone that is moving along with the phone. You wouldn't get home IOT stuff because they don't travel with you.