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Isn’t the point of Apple’s latest anti-staking changes that if the AirTag is separated from its owner’s phone for some time, it will start advertising its presence to other nearby phones? (regardless of being in lost mode)

What do you understand they are changing in terms of behaviour?
You’re correct - the main change in behavior is a “victim” (or, more often, the thief) can now use UWB to locate the airtag in addition to the previously available audible tone.

In my personal situation I have an airtag hidden under my vehicle with the AirTag’s speaker disabled. If my car gets stolen a thief would have to disassemble the car just to find the tag. With this new update Apple will point them right to the tag so they can ditch it and keep my car.

Now I’m hoping to find a way to knock out UWB without bricking the tag. Thanks Apple.
 
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and, you know, the fact that I don't need to share the location of things like my keys and wallet with third parties
As far as I know, if you use the find my network and not the third party apps, your location data won’t be shared. Is that not correct?
 
Agree software updates are gradually killing the value proposition. But while I am not as familiar with competing products, my understanding is that the other options aren’t nearly as good as the AirTag as Apple can rely on a dense network of iOS devices all equipped with GPS and internet connections to pinpoint the location of each AirTag (only Google could compete with this).

Am I missing something here?
Yes, some trackers use their own networks (like Tile), however an increasing number are licensing apple’s find my network (like chipolo, which has the option of both their own network, which is more for android users, or find my for iPhone users).
 
Yes, some trackers use their own networks (like Tile), however an increasing number are licensing apple’s find my network (like chipolo, which has the option of both their own network, which is more for android users, or find my for iPhone users).

I don’t believe the third party companies get any find-my data.

When they license and work with find-my it just means the hardware they sell will interface with Apple’s find-my network. The data lives entirely within the iCloud ecosystem.

The only way a third-party would get someone’s location data is if you sign up for their networks and/or accounts.

Find-my data is completely end to end encrypted - and no one can see it except you (or anyone who has physical access to your devices).
 
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Apple further hurts AirTag functionality and yet they won’t enable family sharing.
I just discovered family sharing isn't possible, even after being specifically told by an apple store employee that it was. Such a bummer. I'm surprised more people aren't complaining about this and that apple hasn't fixed this yet. 👎
 
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