True. Many kids though in the area I live have iphones, but even if they didn't have an iphone and had an android there are other ways to track your kids. Don't know if the airtags use case was meant for this type of scenario.
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How to Disable an Unknown AirTag Found Moving With You to Prevent Being Tracked
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Its amazing how many people just come her to post and dont even go into Apple's own website to check. I have seen some post asking questions which can be solved by going to https://www.apple.com/airtag/
1 - How does it work? 30m only etc.... It reports its location to ALL IPHONES that are within 30m.
"Get by with a little help from hundreds of millions of friends.
When youʼve left something far behind, like at the beach or the gym, the Find My network — hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices around the world — helps track down your AirTag. And itʼs designed to protect your privacy every step of the way."
2- Does it work in public transportation? Will I get ping if I am riding with somebody etc?
"AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there.
Of course, if you happen to be with a friend who has an AirTag, or on a train with a whole bunch of people with AirTag, don’t worry. These alerts are triggered only when an AirTag is separated from its owner."
3- how long does it have to travel with you before it notifies you?
if you look at the picture in Apple.com/airtag/ you can see it is 9:41am and it is showing a notification that an Airtag is detected near you. It says it was first seen at 8:50am, arguably this means that within the hour of a tag traveling with you and WITHOUT its owner.... it will notify you.
1 - How does it work? 30m only etc.... It reports its location to ALL IPHONES that are within 30m.
"Get by with a little help from hundreds of millions of friends.
When youʼve left something far behind, like at the beach or the gym, the Find My network — hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices around the world — helps track down your AirTag. And itʼs designed to protect your privacy every step of the way."
2- Does it work in public transportation? Will I get ping if I am riding with somebody etc?
"AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there.
Of course, if you happen to be with a friend who has an AirTag, or on a train with a whole bunch of people with AirTag, don’t worry. These alerts are triggered only when an AirTag is separated from its owner."
3- how long does it have to travel with you before it notifies you?
if you look at the picture in Apple.com/airtag/ you can see it is 9:41am and it is showing a notification that an Airtag is detected near you. It says it was first seen at 8:50am, arguably this means that within the hour of a tag traveling with you and WITHOUT its owner.... it will notify you.
I wanted to hide one on my bike in case someone decides to take it. The notification that an airtag is traveling with you seems to defeat this use.
I don't think it will be able to work that way, or else all these stalkers everyone seems to be worried about would just mark the AirTag as lost before they even put it on the person they want to follow.
I think Apple is putting privacy too far ahead of security here.
A big benefit of Airtags is tracking stolen goods. I planned on using this for my car, luggage, backpack etc. If a thief can see they are being tracked and can disable the Airbag then what's the point?
One change I hope to see is Apple working with car manufacturers to enable this for vehicles where a thief can't disable or see they are being tracked. The worry that someone is stalking you is entirely mute if you own the vehicle. Considering many cars already have Bluetooth and GPS this seems like it would be a relatively cheap and simple update that would reduce numbers of vehicles stolen (if they are all being tracked it makes them less appealing to criminals), reduce insurance rates, increase stolen vehicle recovery rates.
A big benefit of Airtags is tracking stolen goods. I planned on using this for my car, luggage, backpack etc. If a thief can see they are being tracked and can disable the Airbag then what's the point?
One change I hope to see is Apple working with car manufacturers to enable this for vehicles where a thief can't disable or see they are being tracked. The worry that someone is stalking you is entirely mute if you own the vehicle. Considering many cars already have Bluetooth and GPS this seems like it would be a relatively cheap and simple update that would reduce numbers of vehicles stolen (if they are all being tracked it makes them less appealing to criminals), reduce insurance rates, increase stolen vehicle recovery rates.
So will this be practical for putting in hold luggage / suitcases when travelling? Love the idea of knowing my suitcase has made it to the destination whilst waitng for what often feels like forever at the carousel.
in the use case of a stolen bicycle - you will be able to see the location where you last had it tracked. That’s about as good as anything can do.
Keep in mind Airtags will work in underground parking lots and indoors whereas GPS trackers may not. So before you write off the usefulness give it some more thought.
most locks are great for keeping honest people out, and same for what these can do.
It looks to me like Apple actually put some thought into the use cases for privacy - unlike Square and unlike Samsung and all the other Bluetooth tracker devices made in the last 10 years!
My impression is that it can't be disabled until the AirTag has been identified as an unknown AirTag found to be moving with you. The question is, how long does it take for an unknown AirTag to be identified? Several days?
wait, but wouldn't the airtag bounce off 'find my' devices as your stolen bicycle moves? most likely you know exactly where you left your bike and it wouldn't help anything.
If you have an iOS device it will pop up on your notification screen letting you know you have been dragging an unknown airtag around. It also can beep.
huh?
you said that you would be able to see the last location where you had tracked it. whacha mean?
OK so I put seven air tags hidden in various places on my bicycle. Does the thief deactivate all of them where I parked my bicycle? Yes I know where I parked my bicycle...
If he deactivates the tracker devices no matter what brand they are at some location other than where I parked my bicycle then I suppose I might be getting some use from the tracker device right?
Actually, Apple strongly implies that they can — at least if you get law enforcement involved. From Apple's Support document, What to do if you find an AirTag or get an alert that an AirTag is with you:
Presumably, a law enforcement agency can provide Apple with the AirTag or its serial number to get information on who the registered owner is. This isn't all that surprising, since it has to be registered to an Apple ID in order to work. Apple has shared a lot of details about how they can't use AirTags or other Find My features to track someone's actual location, but they've pointedly never commented on whether they can identify who a given AirTag is registered to.
that is the question at hand now
If you see the image in the apple website... it seems that it detected the Airtag at 8:50am and presumably on the same day at 9:41am it sent you an alert that you were TAGGED....
Where did the thief do that deactivation?
That location will potentially be the last known tracked location.
That location might be important and relevant right? It might not be where I parked my bike - the thief moved it and the Airtags tracked it. Maybe the thief didn’t find and deactivate all the trackers — Oopsie - now he’s in jail and you got your bike back.
Right, I know that, but when does it get identified as an unknown AirTag for the notification to appear and allow it to be deactivated? I really doubt Apple is going to let you deactivate an AirTag immediately after finding (stealing) it.
I wouldn't read too much into that... All of Apple's iPhone marketing images use 9:41 a.m.
Apple's support document suggests it's probably a few hours — much less time than it takes the AirTag to begin emitting a sound by itself. If you read the footnote under the "Found Moving With You" message, it suggests that it's possible for the notification to be stale — the AirTag might have disappeared before you noticed it — but also implies that you'd have to wait to "see if another alert appears as you move from location to location during the day."
Based on Apple's use of the phrase "traveling with you," I don't think AirTags have an accelerometer in them to know when they're moving on their own. Most likely it's your iPhone that figures it out based on seeing the same unknown AirTag nearby as you travel to entirely different locations, and it may be based more on distance than time — that is, how far you travel with the AirTag rather than how long it's been nearby for.
“When” is important for sure.
take a couple of use cases and play a mind experiment and we can figure that out and then confirm it with Apple documentation or real testing. Please go for it.
oh - and if you find one of these you could immediately pull the battery out - no problem to do that, certainly.
Seeing as Apple already have bus / train routes mapped I'd guess that they have algorithms in place that can detect the % likelihood of someone using public transport vs someone following you.
For example, IF a tag is dropped on you before getting on a train vs the owner being in close proximity. Or if a tag is dropped on you while on the train and continues to follow you after disembarking while the owners proximity diminishes you'd get an alert.
“the built-in Find My app will notify you if an unknown AirTag is seen moving with you over time by displaying an "AirTag Found Moving With You" message on the screen”
What’s “over time”? By the time they know where you live, where you work or where you go to school? Only after a few days you’ll get a notification to disable the tag….
Someone can as easily disable the tag on a stolen backpack as someone actually being followed… seems rather useless 😕