iOS 15.2 Beta: How to Use Find My to Locate Items That Can Track You

[slvrscoobie]

this is great, now thieves can go to parking garages, and just walk about scanning for bags / cameras / breifcases / keys that people have left in their car, and have obviously thought valuable enough to stick a $30 tracker on and break into those cars. this is going to be so much better! all in the name of safety!

 

[jlc1978]

As some one who works for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, I can assure you that this is a true problem. Apple is doing much more than most of the other companies who make similar devices to protect victims of DV/IPV. But evil exists in this world and is constantly trying to find new ways to use good technology for bad purposes. Vigilance is critical.

yes, it is a problem. The question is how to balance functionality with safety. A solution might be to notify you if the same AirTag was pinging you for say 10 minutes in close proximity as you moved around; indicating a potential tracker. It could also alert you if one was within a short distance for a significant length of time, such as might happen if a car was tagged. It would ignore those you enabled as your own. That makes it harder for thieves to use the technology to identify tagged items while still allowing stalking trackers to be identified.

If I have a find my on my child, and someone disables the AirTag, that’s close enough for me to consider it attempted kidnapping.

fine, but a lot of people may just not want to be part of a surveillance system. Confronting someone who you suspected of dialing an AirTag on their phone and accusing them of kidnapping might not end well if they think you are attacking them.

 

[4jasontv]

While you all are bickering about the use case of find my and airtags, I literally can't get my iPhone to stop sending me notifications that my own airpod pros and brand new Macbook Pro are tracking my location. I've been dealing with this since upgrading to iOS 15 and I've tried unpairing / repairing. Unbearable to get these notifications every thirty minutes.

Yup. My airpod pro’s do the same thing. It also sends a notification to that Apple TV. I mentioned this in an earlier thread and no one replied. Although mine only occurred a few times per day.

 

[photomaniac]

I really hope MacRumors lifted this one from The Onion.

 

[bb9]

So now if I find* somebody’s iphone and stuff, i can disable any tracking tags and steal it. This does not make sense. ?

 

[Brian Greenstone]

Thanks, Apple, for making AirTags completely useless as anti-theft devices. Seriously, what's the point?!? Apple is obsessed with anti-stalking.

 

[saudade]

when travelling on a plane, train, bus. In theory you’ll be able to play a sound from any AirTag near you, as well as see the contact info of the owner if they’ve enabled it?

I gonna have big fun with thiz dud

 

[Tempor_aka]

The key is the ability to cause it to make a sound to make it easy to locate for removal.



I agree, but Apple is really parsing a fine line between the difference of lost vs. stolen.

- point one, people that want to use AirTags as a security measure clearly are using it for the wrong purpose your comment makes it clear you want to use the device as some kind of security measure, the AirTag was never designed that way.

- point two, look at point one …

 

[jlc1978]

- point one, people that want to use AirTags as a security measure clearly are using it for the wrong purpose your comment makes it clear you want to use the device as some kind of security measure, the AirTag was never designed that way.

- point two, look at point one …

1. I think Apple knew people would use them to track stolen items but simply avoided mentioning that to avoid any potential liability if something went wrong. If Apple was really didn't want AirTags to be used that way they would have built this new precision finding capability into iOS when they launched AirTags. I thnk Apple is reacting after the fact to avoid bad publicity.

2. I think AirTags are overpriced and have no desire to own or use them as I see them not doing anything I need. YMMV

3. If someone really wants to hide one and use it to track someone or something they need to disable the speaker. Someone may still find out there is an AirTag nearby but not be able to locate it by sound.

 

[smirking]

Is there really a problem for this solution?

Yes. Think of abusive spouses and creepy dudes who won't take No for an answer.

 

[Tempor_aka]

1. I think Apple knew people would use them to track stolen items but simply avoided mentioning that to avoid any potential liability if something went wrong. If Apple was really didn't want AirTags to be used that way they would have built this new precision finding capability into iOS when they launched AirTags. I thnk Apple is reacting after the fact to avoid bad publicity.

2. I think AirTags are overpriced and have no desire to own or use them as I see them not doing anything I need. YMMV

3. If someone really wants to hide one and use it to track someone or something they need to disable the speaker. Someone may still find out there is an AirTag nearby but not be able to locate it by sound.

From day one the anti stalking features was known and described, so it was clear from day ONE that an AirTag could not be used for stolen goods. Some people clearly didn’t think that all the way trough and are now complaining saying Apple implemented this to avoid the backlash … just crazy …

On a personal note, it helped me find lost items plenty of times so it works great, even the time when my wife mistakenly took my keys, put them in a purse that she put away when back home and was able to find them with precision finding so yeah they do work as intended, better than my Tile’s ever … so precision finding is for finding lost items, not stolen goods …

 

[jlc1978]

Yes. Think of abusive spouses and creepy dudes who won't take No for an answer.

So the discussion would be how many of those would actually use an AirTag vs the amount of stuff stolen every day?

 

[smirking]

So the discussion would be how many of those would actually use an AirTag vs the amount of stuff stolen every day?

It's a small number to be sure, but it's a real danger. It happened to a friend of mine... not through an AirTag, but an ordinary GPS tracker. She was being stalked.

 

[tclementdev]

It's a small number to be sure, but it's a real danger. It happened to a friend of mine... not through an AirTag, but an ordinary GPS tracker. She was being stalked.

This suspiciously sounds like arguing that iMessage should be backdoored because it might be used for nefarious purposes. When one can simply buy any other (probably cheaper) GPS tracker to stalk someone, it is not clear how this is helping.

 

[sevoneone]

- point one, people that want to use AirTags as a security measure clearly are using it for the wrong purpose your comment makes it clear you want to use the device as some kind of security measure, the AirTag was never designed that way.

- point two, look at point one …

The point was also to not make your stuff less secure. This new feature enables theft by letting anyone with an iPhone wholesale scan a space like a house, hotel room, RV, car or whatever when the occupants are gone and know if there is something of potentially high value worth breaking in for. Then, once they’re in, they can make it play a sound to be led right to the item.

Anti stalking is important, but if this is the means that it takes to protect against it, I think AirTags, and other item trackers in general, are a failed product. All the other measures they’ve taken (sounds and notifications) have a solid positive argument that doesn’t compromise the premise of the product. Making so a thief can find my valuables as easily as I can absolutely does.

 

[Tempor_aka]

The point was also to not make your stuff less secure. This new feature enables theft by letting anyone with an iPhone wholesale scan a space like a house, hotel room, RV, car or whatever when the occupants are gone and know if there is something of potentially high value worth breaking in for. Then, once they’re in, they can make it play a sound to be led right to the item.

Anti stalking is important, but if this is the means that it takes to protect against it, I think AirTags, and other item trackers in general, are a failed product. All the other measures they’ve taken (sounds and notifications) have a solid positive argument that doesn’t compromise the premise of the product. Making so a thief can find my valuables as easily as I can absolutely does.

Yeah I see thieves scanning for AirTags, just to be sure there are valuables inside, they could find keys, only to discover they fit a Toyota Corolla. Fot that matter there are other more valuable Bluetooth beacons they can probe like iPhones / iPads / MBP’s or their Android and Windows equivalent … The backpacks of childen and house keys are way less valuable. By now it‘s clear they are Not being used to track valuable items …. I could also scan for tiles … they sent out a BT beacon as well … should that lead me into thinking I can steal something valuable, I think not, thieves have other and way better means to determine if something is worth while breaking into.

 

[Oblithe]

If someone steals my backpack… it is LOST TO ME…. By the time I realize it is taken, the thief can deactivate any AirTag… even before I am aware that it is missing.
Therefore: AirTags are useless for tracking lost items, no matter which method the item ended up “lost.”

 

[jlc1978]

It's a small number to be sure, but it's a real danger. It happened to a friend of mine... not through an AirTag, but an ordinary GPS tracker. She was being stalked.

having done some work in IPV, I do not doubt it is a danger; just not sure AirTags are taht much of a problem; especially since if someone wanted to track someone with it you can disable the sound to make it hard to find even if detected.

 

[Tempor_aka]

If someone steals my backpack… it is LOST TO ME…. By the time I realize it is taken, the thief can deactivate any AirTag… even before I am aware that it is missing.
Therefore: AirTags are useless for tracking lost items, no matter which method the item ended up “lost.”

So is any BT tracker, they all are easily detected and found by the thieves if they are smart, and as far as I can see even if AirTags are not designed against theft, I do read more stories about recovered stolen goods due to use of AirTags then of any other BT tracker, go figure …. In fact most BT tags/ tracker devices are a ripoff as even in simpel tests they never ever are even found … contrary to popular YT posts where one sends an AirTag all over the world and can track it with a high degree of accuracy. So yeah a real issue on paper not so much in real life, on the contrary. To be found you first need to be able to follow it, most other BT trackers fail at step one, so don’t even bother to use them as a “security“ device. If it really is that important, buy a GPS tracker with SIM card, there are dozens of those …

 

[incoherent_1]

this is great, now thieves can go to parking garages, and just walk about scanning for bags / cameras / breifcases / keys that people have left in their car, and have obviously thought valuable enough to stick a $30 tracker on and break into those cars. this is going to be so much better! all in the name of safety!

Why bother breaking into cars when you can just board a train and do the same thing for the bags in the luggage areas? Thieves’ dream come true. So glad Apple decided to wait until after I bought the product to make it worse for me.

 

[Tempor_aka]

Why bother breaking into cars when you can just board a train and do the same thing for the bags in the luggage areas? Thieves’ dream come true. So glad Apple decided to wait until after I bought the product to make it worse for me.

Only if the AirTag is out of range for you and only for the thieve, item will still be tracked by others, if he can remove the AirTag that easily it means the tag is easily visible/accessible and so even without the features he would easily detect and remove it. I would say if you are in a train and you have a language locked with AirTag inside, the thieve will SKIP your luggage as he cannot disable the AiRTag for others. So Apple made your product better even though it was never positioned to be an anti theft system. I say kudos for Apple!

 

[incoherent_1]

Only if the AirTag is out of range for you and only for the thieve, item will still be tracked by others, if he can remove the AirTag that easily it means the tag is easily visible/accessible and so even without the features he would easily detect and remove it. I would say if you are in a train and you have a language locked with AirTag inside, the thieve will SKIP your luggage as he cannot disable the AiRTag for others. So Apple made your product better even though it was never positioned to be an anti theft system. I say kudos for Apple!

Cool. All I have to do is either never leave to go to the bathroom or just leave my iPhone unsupervised when I do so that it’s always within range of my luggage for my 6 hour train trip. If that’s worthy of “Kudos for Apple” to you, then I think you’re missing the point.

 

[alexandr]

That's of my concern as well. I was considering grabbing a pack to put in my bags, but if someone can just turn them off, what's the point?

well, that would only happen if you're away from your bag, right? and like with the "traveling with you" there must be some time before this can be done. i hope. otherwise — yea...

 

[alexandr]

Cool. All I have to do is either never leave to go to the bathroom or just leave my iPhone unsupervised when I do so that it’s always within range of my luggage for my 6 hour train trip. If that’s worthy of “Kudos for Apple” to you, then I think you’re missing the point.

it sounds like someone is really after your luggage. an airtag won't suffice in your case.

 

[Tempor_aka]

Cool. All I have to do is either never leave to go to the bathroom or just leave my iPhone unsupervised when I do so that it’s always within range of my luggage for my 6 hour train trip. If that’s worthy of “Kudos for Apple” to you, then I think you’re missing the point.

AirTag‘s location will still be reported by all the other iOS devices … I think you miss the point, all the other trackers do not even work due to no one using the App … as several tests have proven all other trackers are noting more than a marketing ploy, they work only if you the owner and near them, and there the AirTag is miles better, precision finding is next level with my tile 2 meters could be any direction, AirTag I get direction and find it immediately. So if you leave your luggage and the thieve disables follow me there are still 1 billion iOS devices potentially reporting the location, versus a few million on other platforms. In any case the thieve can remove any tracker if he has easy access as he can detect all trackers quite easily … So yeah Kudos to Apple that it can be used in situations where it was not even intended for.