iOS 14.5 Beta 3 Includes 'Item Safety Feature' for AirTags and Other Tracked Items to Help Prevent Stalking

[Somian]

It sounds like it is not going to disable the tracker, but just disabling notification for it.

So if you are carrying someone elses tracker on you. You will get a notification saying that "another airtag appear to be carry by you". And you can turn this notification off

Ok, but that’s already a problem if a thief will be alerted that there is a tracker.

 

[1putt]

Magic Keyboard mouse pad not working with this update. Annoying….

 

[mjtomlin71]

 

[vOne1]

I bet the alert will go if if your iphone is reporting the tracker. Assumably, on the bus, the trackers owner’s phone will be the only one connected to the tracker

I think that if the airtag and the owner of the airtag is in Bluetooth range from your iPhone, then other persons won’t get the notification, because you already know there location. Maybe something like that?

 

[laszlo182]

thats real cool. Unfortunately that means if you put a tracker on your own backpack/car etc when someone steals it, it will warn them that they are being tracked.

i guess you cannot have everything...you will get notified when an item is no longer near you and then you have x time until it notifies the tief that there’s a tag hidden in the stolen thing. there would definitely be a lost mode and maybe that would somehow help

 

[atoqir]

Clever
Didn't think to that yet .

 

[rafark]

thats real cool. Unfortunately that means if you put a tracker on your own backpack/car etc when someone steals it, it will warn them that they are being tracked.

I thought this feature was fantastic, but after reading this, it ruins the purpose of air tags imo.

 

[prh8]

I had hoped to use AirTags for the following scenario:

My female best friend is a runner. If she has one in her shorts, gets kidnapped by someone with an iPhone, would I be able to follow her location (which she has permanently shared with me), due to the location reporting similar to phones/laptops?

Would this feature kill that use case, because it would basically be tracking that person?

 

[kylew1212]

Presumably even is one the individual stole something with an airbag and had this feature turned off, the iPhone network would still be able to locate the item. In my understanding of this it's the breadth of iPhones across the globe that makes this attractive. Maybe the thief has turned off the 'stalker' option, but most likely at some point the airtag could come in contact who was not traveling with the airtag but instead crossing paths and the has an iPhone, so the airtag could be tracked anyway..

Or am I confused. I realize these haven't even been released so who knows

 

[libertysat]

Haven't AirTags been mentioned in the code since 2019? Come on Apple...

Read article again

 

[now i see it]

they say that privacy for their customers is important — and then they create the mother of all tracking devices.

 

[The Game 161]

one step closer to air tags

 

[jonen]

Pretty scary scenario to even think about... I just want to throw an AirTag in my glove box so I never have to worry about finding my parked car in a huge parking lot. My dog will probably end up with an AirTag on her collar too.

 

[_Spinn_]

The launch of AirTags must be close...🤞

 

[eMacKilla]

What are air tags? Sounds like some mythical created from long ago.

 

[DeepIn2U]

thats real cool. Unfortunately that means if you put a tracker on your own backpack/car etc when someone steals it, it will warn them that they are being tracked.

It's ALSO GOOD that some pedo whom places a tag in a kids knapsack or jacket pocket will alert them and their parents if their Watch SE is attached to their parents iOS device.

Me personally I like my privacy, yet I don't give a DAMN of it if a kids personal safety is of ANY risk!

pedo's could be the school bus driver, the ice cream truck driver/server (Billy Kincaid of HBO's Spawn), the clown at a party or puppeter etc.

 

[mw360]

I thought this feature was fantastic, but after reading this, it ruins the purpose of air tags imo.

It ruins your purpose maybe, but not the advertised purpose, which isn’t and won’t be as an anti-theft device. in the early days of Find My iPhone the handful of success stories were mixed with a handful of kids ending up dead after trying to get their phones back. Apple aren’t going to get into vigilantism against serious criminals, nor give us the power to decide, extrajudicially, who’s a thief and who doesn’t have the right to privacy. I’m impressed that they’ve given it so much thought, and decided to leave a bunch of money on the table.

 

[Fudders]

Mark my words. This will be released same day air tags come out. End of March.

Mark my words. No one cares

 

[I7guy]

Damn that would be bad. Hope they have a solution for this. A kidnapper or car thief with an iPhone can disable it if I’m reading correctly.

then I thought, well if it’s my own that I’m using to track my car maybe it won’t, but then realized that stalkers would have their own tag to stalk someone so they would have the same disable or continue option. Super curious how they solve this.

Seems like this is a double edge sword.

 

[Tech198]

Why don't I read these things ahead of time.

 

[coolfactor]

I must be dumb, because this makes my head hurt. An "unknown item"?

So this alert pops up after toggling an option on a notification? What triggers the notification?

 

[0924487]

Sucks for Android users being stalked 😅

 

[0924487]

"Find My" only works when you tag something as being lost. From that point on it's being tracked. So there's no reason for you to get notifications, just because there's an AirTag somewhere near you.

If your girlfriend placed a tag in your car, you want to know that before seeing someone else. Counter-intelligence baby!

 

[0924487]

I had hoped to use AirTags for the following scenario:

My female best friend is a runner. If she has one in her shorts, gets kidnapped by someone with an iPhone, would I be able to follow her location (which she has permanently shared with me), due to the location reporting similar to phones/laptops?

Would this feature kill that use case, because it would basically be tracking that person?

She can trust the tag in her Find My. Then she can share her location with you as a "family member" in her Find My. She can choose to share her location from her iPhone or from her Tag.

 

[InGen]

But yeah also a time trigger as well, I would say next to you for at least 3-4 hours maybe? Or it could maybe know if that owner is in your contacts and mark it as safe? Not sure. Remains to be seen for sure!

What Apple is trying to say, keep your enemies close 😂