iOS 15.2 Adds Option to Scan for Nearby AirTags and Find My-Enabled Items

[I7guy]

And how many go unreported and undiscovered? This is definitely not an "imaginary non-issue" as the previous poster suggested.

Maybe zero. There are those who will always find a way to put good technology to a bad use. Not that it's not a non-issue, it's not really a "quantum leap" as I believe there are enough safeguards built-in. And we don't really hear about other cheap tracking devices "stalking" victims.

The Airtags are a quantum leap in terms of their stalking "features". There has never been a tracking device this cheap, small and capable available on the consumer market. Tile was close in theory, but they didn't have the critical mass to make their tags trackable almost everywhere like the Airtags are thanks to the "Find My network".

 

[I7guy]

Hmm, not seeing the feature on my phone either. Maybe it was pulled at the last moment?

I don't see it either. Although there is a screen that says "searching for items".

 

[TinyMito]

Can't see it.

 

[Pagemakers]

Those of us who don’t have this feature, are we outside the USA? I’m in the UK and no feature.

 

[Rigby]

And we don't really hear about other cheap tracking devices "stalking" victims.

Because there aren't any that can do what the Airtags can do. Until they became available, you'd need a tracker with GPS and a cellular connection (and data plan), which are significantly more expensive, bigger, more difficult to hide, and have a battery life measured in days instead of months.

 

[I7guy]

Because there aren't any that can do what the Airtags can do. Until they became available, you'd need a tracker with GPS and a cellular connection (and data plan), which are significantly more expensive, bigger, more difficult to hide, and have a battery life measured in days instead of months.

I see this as a tempest in a teapot. Time will tell. Doesn't mean there will be 0 incidents of people using this in nefarious ways, I just don't see it as the enabler of stalking that maybe some others see it as. YMMV.

 

[reggoboy]

A stolen item is a lost item.

Yes, but a lost item isn't necessarily a stolen item.

And so that's the remaining use case: they're pretty useless if they are stolen, but they are not useless if they are merely lost but not stolen.

 

[dahosepipe]

Not seeing the "Items That Can Track Me" option.

Has anyone actually seen this on 15.2?

 

[Pagemakers]

Not seeing the "Items That Can Track Me" option.

Has anyone actually seen this on 15.2?

No