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Is this Find My network opt in? Maybe I'm just being overly paranoid, but it's slightly concerning that Apple will use my device's location without my permission. I understand it's anonymous, but I would still expect Apple to make this an opt-in feature, like they do for any other app that wants to use my location.
 
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If a thief steals my bike with a tracker inside of it, sounds like they’ll get a notification that the tracker is moving with them and have an option to disable it. Lovely.
But the bike will be unusable to them, the pedals will lock up or something. Or at least, that's what Vanmoof should make their bike capable of doing.
 
What if I don't want to participate in the Find My network? I don't want my phone's location being used by random strangers to find their stuff with no monetary compensation whatsoever.

Also, that uses up my battery charge with no benefit to myself.
 
There is probably more to it.

For example the bike could maybe detect that it is parked by you, and then when it’s moved you are not near it. It could trigger a notification to you so that you can put it in lost mode or take some other action.

There are probably a lot of interesting scenarios thought out so that privacy is guaranteed, and also your items security.

That bike scenario, here in Montréal, oh man, that will put this system to a test... there’s an insane amount of bicycles high jacking, from $100 to $3000 ones. Not cellphones, not cars... bikes, and they can only be properly used here less than 5 months a year because of all the snow.


Indeed there has to be a lot more to it and surely Apple’s engineers have gone through most scenarios...

Seems like a lot of this will work with a healthy amount of good faith in general. At least here in Canada, since I arrived about a decade ago, I’m still surprised how lost cellphones and valuable things appear back... someone finds it and more often than not manages to get ahold of the person that lost the item. Except like mentioned above, bikes, I can’t get over it.
 
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Wow you’re right, seems like quite an oversight. I wonder what’s going to happen when someone goes on a bus or something. Going to have to reset up everything when you’re in a crowded area?

All of this occurred to me immediately too when I read the article. I’m guessing(?) it occurred to somebody at Apple and hopefully they have some cleverness built in to avoid these problems. I sure hope so anyway. 😂
 
Prolly as useless as find my AirPods. If not actively connected to your phone it doesn't work to actually find the item at the location.
Yea, I just assumed that this would also work for AirPods when they toggled it on, but it's as useless as it's always been!
 
He isn’t talking about the lost mode, he is referring to people getting a notification on their phone saying there is a tracker following them, to protect them.
Yes, I know. Read what I said again. The safety alerts are dependent on the device being in Lost Mode.
 
That bike scenario, here in Montréal, oh man, that will put this system to a test... there’s an insane amount of bicycles high jacking, from $100 to $3000 ones. Not cellphones, not cars... bikes, and they can only be properly used here less than 5 months a year because of all the snow.


Indeed there has to be a lot more to it and surely Apple’s engineers have gone through most scenarios...

Seems like a lot of this will work with a healthy amount of good faith in general. At least here in Canada, since I arrived about a decade ago, I’m still surprised how lost cellphones and valuable things appear back... someone finds it and more often than not manages to get ahold of the person that lost the item. Except like mentioned above, bikes, I can’t get over it.
Apple certainly have thought about it in detail, but they are most likely to come down on the side of privacy and safety over vigilante fantasies. Mostly bad headlines will come from allowing users to track other people. Either criminals tracking their victims or criminals doing harm to victims who track them into a dark alley. Career criminals will be wise to these things within a couple of months anyway and alongside your broken bike lock, there’ll be metal shavings from where the thief drilled into the tracker chip.
 
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Those Vanmoof bikes are burnin a hole in my wallet, and find my integration is making it difficult not to pull the trigger.
 
This appears to be a bad software design. I get the Tile-like crowding finding feature. However, said feature appears to alert thieves. I wouldn't want everyone and their mother able to track one of my devices.

Have you used it? No.

If you haven't used it, then you don't know how it works, and therefore can't opine that it's "bad software design."
 
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If a thief steals my bike with a tracker inside of it, sounds like they’ll get a notification that the tracker is moving with them and have an option to disable it. Lovely.
This is exactly how I read it. The assumption is that everyone will be nice and return lost items. Not so for some cretin thief.
 
This is exactly how I read it. The assumption is that everyone will be nice and return lost items. Not so for some cretin thief.
I would have thought the option of a stranger turning off a tracker would only be a thing with the likes of Chipolo Tags and not the likes of a bicyle.

It makes not sense to turn it off on a bike. I mean, it's not like a bike is going to be placed in your bag without you knowing about it (Which is the purpose of disable tracking).
 
I would have thought the option of a stranger turning off a tracker would only be a thing with the likes of Chipolo Tags and not the likes of a bicyle.

It makes not sense to turn it off on a bike. I mean, it's not like a bike is going to be placed in your bag without you knowing about it (Which is the purpose of disable tracking).
I would agree if the only reason for getting the tags was on integrated items like a bike. But I'd like to put one in my car, for example, so that if it's stolen I can have one more way of tracking it. Conversely, if someone steals your bag, they can just disable the tracker.
 
I would agree if the only reason for getting the tags was on integrated items like a bike. But I'd like to put one in my car, for example, so that if it's stolen I can have one more way of tracking it. Conversely, if someone steals your bag, they can just disable the tracker.
Preaching to the choir mate. Ideal world situation though. I just wonder if there will be different rules for different devices.

It makes sense that a device specific tracker might be allowed stay always-on. But I do completely understand why a "plantable" type tracker can be turned off as there is too many situations where it could be misused.
 
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