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Apple Announces AirTag Updates to Address Unwanted Tracking
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How about family sharing of AirTags?
That should be priority after the privacy issues of course.
That should be priority after the privacy issues of course.
FYI https://www.brickhousesecurity.com/gps-trackers/gps-tracking-laws/
In many places it is illegal to track an adult without their knowledge.
Text says "crime in many regions" so that'd likely mean there are some places where it isn't a crime.
Parents tracking their children is a different situation; from what I've seen it's generally accepted as okay when doing so out of concern for their safety. Might be a little different if they're teenagers, but it is legal to track the car your own even if they're the driver.
So frustrating. If there's an object -a set of keys, a pet that more than one person needs to find, I shouldn't have to call the household member the tag is tied to, to give me an idea of where it might be. Someone should be given ability to share location with select others.
These look like thoughtful updates to the AirTag ecosystem. I don’t have any use for these, but I know people who do. Glad Apple is innovating here.
Yes- save your money!
on the other hand, it might work if they don’t hear it for some reason. But they know they stole it, so it’s not as if a beeping AirTag is going to make much difference if they do.
You can opt out by using an Android smartphone.
As least that's what I'd imagine Apple and their fanboys would tell you. They'd say it's their software, that you agreed to their Terms of Use, etc.
No different than when discussion comes up about third party app store/side loading.
Unlikely. Airtag speaker removal videos I've looked at* don't typically do anything about the coil, just the part the coil moves. So there's still current flow, just little/no noise.
* I don't own any Airtags, but was curious at all the hullabaloo over speaker removal.
What about people who go around shooting other people?
The question is how long before they get the alert.
Might still be useful for tracking the stolen bicycle if you're able to do so within that period of time.
Out of curiosity - as I don't own an Airtag - do you (the owner) get an alert if the Airtag moves without you being near it?
Or children tracking their parent, worried the parent may get lost or go missing.
hopefully, they will let you disable the sounds when not with you. Personally I use them to keep track of my kids book bags etc so they are most of the time not with me.
In my opinion, Apple will drop airtags because it will become increasingly obvious that what ever they try to do it will also aid criminals which means Apple will get constant bad press over this which I feel will lead them into dumping airtags. As others have pointed out, the precision find feature will aid criminals in finding other peoples airtags because all they will need to do is download the airtag app to their iphone and when it starts reporting that there is an airtag nearby they will activate precision to find who is the person that has the airtag and then see if that person has something worth stealing.
That cat has been out of the bag for a long time before Airtags showed up.
Small, discrete, inexpensive GPS+cellular trackers have been around for a while now and nobody gets any alerts if one of those is stuck to your car or dropped in your bag...
Same with Tile or other similar devices.
Apple was the first (AFAIK) to actually think about these being used for stalking and seems to be addressing those issues.
Yes, and that would be another good use case for family-sharing of airtags since the elderly parent might have an ipad or even an iphone.
While I agree, it comes back to use case analysis. If basic things like tracking or having two vehicles or keys left for car repair or luggage or etc can cause potential issues, just what kind of use case analysis did the development team really do?
-3 years from now, it's under Settings, iCloud, Find My, Find My iPhone, Find My Network (toggle it off).
What's the betting some people on the airtag development team warned Apple about about the potential misuse of the device in that it could be used for stalking purposes and to make stalking easier a person could disable the internal speaker but Apple dismissed these concerns and said the product was going ahead anyway.
Not sure some places but this "tracking" issue came up when I became a foster resource. The question was using Find My for your foster charge.. It is allowed.
"It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so d*mn ingenious."...
Likely the best insight we can have as to the product design team's vision is to look at the marketing. Looking at the page on Apple's site, it seems they're marketed as a tool to help find stuff you've misplaced or left behind. They also apparently did have some thought to misuse given the initial features alerting to an unknown airtag nearby, a capability they're enhancing further.
I don't own an airtag - how long away from your phone before it begins beeping or alerting others? I'd understood it was several hours. How much shorter of a time is it?
I'm also curious about the keys left for car repair thing... Maybe I'm too old school, but I always would leave my spare or valet key with the mechanic. I still needed the other keys on my keyring for door locks and file cabinet locks. Do people really leave those other keys with their car when it's being serviced?
If your flight is going to be longer than a few hours, *and* if you'd set bluetooth off when in airplane mode, just turn it back on.
We'll see how much time they set it, but after that time it will make noises when moving. I don't know if it's particularly loud enough to overcome an airplane noise. But yes you could annoy people like that, so keep Bluetooth on please (You're allowed Bluetooth in flight). Or take the battery out. (probably doesn't matter if it's in cargo and beeping, no one would hear it in the cabin).