Apple's Limits on Third-Party 'Find My' Integration Under Scrutiny

[MacRumors]

Apple last month introduced the new "Find My" Network Accessory Program, built to allow third-party products to work with Apple's own Find My app. While Apple's AirTags have yet to be formally announced, this program was seen as a way for Apple to level the playing field with competing Bluetooth location trackers, like Tile, and avoid accusations of Apple monopolizing the market.

In a new report today by The Washington Post, there are more aspects to this program that haven't been previously detailed, including far stricter rules for third-party companies using the Find My app. According to an anonymous developer who shared a secret 50-page PDF from Apple about Find My, customers who use Apple's app to locate a device will be barred from using third-party services simultaneously.

Although the details remain sparse, this suggests that while you will be able to link a Tile tracker to Find My and use Apple's app to locate a lost wallet, for example, you would then be prevented from using Tile's own app to do the same. Additionally, because of Apple's restrictions to "always allow" location access, every outside company will have to ask each Apple user for permission to obtain their location, which is a notable hindrance for item location apps.

Another issue pointed out by developers is their limited access to the iPhone's Bluetooth antenna and other Apple hardware. While the Find My app can use these pieces of hardware whenever it needs to, third-party software can only use the Bluetooth antenna within certain thresholds, and if the developers go beyond that Apple cuts their access off and prevents the software from working. Notably, according to these developers, Apple does not inform them what the specific threshold is.

Following the announcement of Apple's Find My app and amid the rumors swirling of Apple's own Bluetooth tracking hardware, Tile began taking action against Apple. The company accused Apple of abuse of power and of illegally favoring its own products in a letter sent to the European Union in May. Tile said that Apple was making it more difficult for users to operate the Tile Bluetooth trackers on iOS devices, "by selectively disabling features that allow for seamless user experience."

Despite the claims made by developers in The Washington Post today, Apple spokesman Alex Kirschner said that the company sees its Find My Network Accessory Program as helpful to smaller companies that lack resources to build a location-finding service: "If you were a smaller player interested in getting into the finding space and you haven’t built a finding network, this allows you to do that." Apple has denied that its policies are anticompetitive.

Article Link: Apple's Limits on Third-Party 'Find My' Integration Under Scrutiny

 

[jameswilby]

Location data is extremely sensitive. I don’t know enough about this situation right now to say which side I’m on... but I think I would certainly be worried if Apple wasn’t been strict as a whole.

 

[macsplusmacs]

Exactly. the last thing we need is an Android type of system that ends up watching and following us beyond the permissions we give it.


" According to an anonymous developer who shared a secret 50-page PDF from Apple "

The whiny CEO of Tile.
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[mnsportsgeek]

Use your own app, Tile.

 

[superlawyer15]

Whiny company with garbage overpriced product can’t compete so they resort to complaining.

Create your own app tile.

 

[ouimetnick]

If Tile is so butthurt, why don’t they develop their own mobile phone and own software platform where their apps are 1st party apps? Seems a bit greedy on their end.

 

[MauiPa]

Tile should be forced to write an app that allows any company's devices to be found using it. That would level the playing field, exactly what tile wants. Brilliant!

 

[calzon65]

It's smart for Apple to open up certain technologies to try to position themselves as being "open", otherwise they will continue to run the risk of being accused as anti-competitive (regardless if it's warranted or not). Apple is smart and they know perception is the true reality.

 

[boltarus]

The Feds are not going to be happy until they have forced Apple to make their platform so open to privacy thieves and scamware that government tracking and snooping will be trivial and unnoticed.

 

[gk4]

"by selectively disabling features that allow for seamless user experience."

That sentence can be used for almost any action an OS takes to increase security. Every hole you plug, is an avenue that some app out there was using to provide some functionality.

 

[medee88]

Location data is extremely sensitive. I don’t know enough about this situation right now to say which side I’m on... but I think I would certainly be worried if Apple wasn’t been strict as a whole.

I agree with that certainly. My major issue is a product that someone has opted into (Tile) gradually working worse and worse as Apple changes the goalpost on location without making a way beforehand for legitimate uses of it to keep being as functional.

I certainly understand not everyone here uses Tile, but before Tile I'd spend random amounts of time looking for keys, etc, and it's even helped me recover lost and stolen items. I even got a tile tracker for my AirPods as the lack of being able to find them while in the case makes it very tough to find when stuck in a couch, etc.

As of recent iOS releases, connection time to find my devices is significantly worse and it makes me a bit sad. Having this program where a big feature of tile (the network) is not possible if you want things to work better doesn't seem like a super great solution.

Apples potential solution sounds interesting (AirTags if they are indeed real), but I can't help but thinking if they give their solution the abilities that Tile had without all the restrictions Tile appears to have on it's app now, that really does seem anticompetitive.

 

[rikscha]

Good. If i want full Tile integration I buy a Tile phone

 

[cocky jeremy]

Don't like it? Make your own system. Apple can run their own software/hardware however they want.

 

[AustinIllini]

I get both sides here. For Apple, you want the security of auditing all your participants in the Find My system.

But, if you're tile, you are competing with an app that is the default and installed by the system automatically. Once Apple releases a tile competitor, they will have what can decently be considered an unfair advantage.

Solution: Apple should work to create a "FindKit" which allows for other companies to meet a certain specification to allow competition in the "Find My" app.
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"by selectively disabling features that allow for seamless user experience."

That sentence can be used for almost any action an OS takes to increase security. Every hole you plug, is an avenue that some app out there was using to provide some functionality.

The problem is, Apple creates a grey line between "what is the OS" and "what is an App". Find My is an App from Apple that should probably have to compete on an even playing field. Unless Apple can provide a way for competitors to make it into the FindMy app, the competitors have a gripe.
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Don't like it? Make your own system. Apple can run their own software/hardware however they want.

Apple should be forced to compete in its own App Store like all of the competitors do.

 

[springsup]

lol this is shrewd from Apple. I don’t think they expect anybody to actually join this program: the item-finding market isn’t some massive, booming phenomenon, so their proposed program targeted at startups is just an insult to emphasise that it really isn’t a separate market at all from their perspective.

While the Find My app can use these pieces of hardware whenever it needs to, third-party software can only use the Bluetooth antenna within certain thresholds, and if the developers go beyond that Apple cuts their access off and prevents the software from working. Notably, according to these developers, Apple does not inform them what the specific threshold is.

This is why Tile can’t make their own app which does what Apple’s can. Read the article before claiming they’re greedy or demanding anything special from Apple. In theory what they’re asking for is perfectly reasonable - the ability to write a similarly-good App of their own on Apple’s OS.

It’s like nobody here remembers Microsoft trying to lock people in to Internet Explorer by tying it deeply in to Windows. That was a move that ended up hurting the entire internet because IE was so crap, and hurt Apple especially because Macs didn’t have IE so websites didn’t work properly or looked bad (they eventually got it as part of the Microsoft deal IIRC). Or remember when the cellular operators in the US were blocking mobile payment systems because they were demanding we all use their payment service?

it’s a similar thing here. Apple is a hardware and operating system developer who is using that position to grant their own products superpowers that no other product can match. It crushes competition and is totally crappy for consumers.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I can imagine Google having a feast with user location data.
No thanks!

 

[andrewtzn]

I am totally fine using my Tile with only the Find My app. I like how Apple is providing software and customer can choose hardware vendors. That’s totally fair IMO.
Who needs the worthless Tile app, that puts separation alert behind a pay wall?
Tile should just work with Apple and support Find My. Tile could even save money since they won’t need to provide software/app anymore.
They will have my business if they choose this path. (good software + good hardware) win win

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Solution: Apple should work to create a "FindKit" which allows for other companies to meet a certain specification to allow competition in the "Find My" app.

I think that’s what they’ve done. All devices that adhere to the standards will be able to have their devices included in the search performed by the Find My app.

 

[AustinIllini]

I think that’s what they’ve done. All devices that adhere to the standards will be able to have their devices included in the search performed by the Find My app.

Sorry, I don't own tile. Consider my mind changed.

All the HomeKit manufacturers don't have a problem.

 

[MacFan23]

Aren‘t the principles of this basically the same as HomeKit secure video?

 

[jazz1]

I hope they don't screw up my Tiles. I don't know how many times I've misplaced my key (in the house), and once a carry bag (with my iPad in it) while away from the house.

 

[Art Mark]

So developers want complete access to everything and mic access and tracking access and they complain when they don't get everything they want. Then go work on Android apps where the entire business is listening and tracking users 'for their connivence' and for the companies profits. I don't mind knowing and being asked when apps want more from me. That is not an inconvenience. It's responsibility. I understand what the developers want in many cases, but that doesn't make it 'right' or 'illegal' for not getting what they want.

 

[J___o___h___n]

This is exactly how the process should work. Apple is being good by letting others have access to certain iPhone hardware and feature but sensitive information such as Location Data should be protected.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Ridiculous stretch that's doing nothing but putting money in the pockets of lawyers.

 

[gridlocked]

Are manufacturers going to sue because Apple won't release ios for resale? I mean Apple owns ios and everything they do with it. I'm not seeing this.