Tile Buyer Life360 Selling Precise Location Data on Millions of Users [Updated]

[Michael Scrip]

Life360 offers a free service... but I'd be curious to know if they sell data of their customers who pay for the premium service?

People can pay between $5 and $20 a month for Life360. Those customers shouldn't have their location data sold, right?

 

[needsomecoffee]

Take a pause and consider this paragraph from the article (emphasis mine):

Meanwhile, selling location data has become more and more central to the company’s health as it’s struggled to achieve profitability. In 2016, the company made $693,000 from selling data it collected. In 2020, the company made $16 million—nearly 20 percent of its revenue that year—from selling location data, plus an additional $6 million from its partnership with Arity.

 

[polaris20]

Find My is free too. Am I Apple’s product? No, so that pseudo-intellectual point that people love to drag out doesn’t hold up.

Note that nowhere have I defended Life360. I don’t know much about the company, I don’t use them. All I’m saying it that this stupid generalisation is stupid, whether it applies in this case or not.

Can't see the distinction? Okay there, guy.

 

[Homme]

Further proof Tile is a STUPID company for allowing themselves to be bought by this, how can this company sell the data of millions of users worldwide

Game over tile,

 

[elvisimprsntr]

People can pay between $5 and $20 a month for Life360. Those customers shouldn't have their location data sold, right?

Life360 probably gets a premium for paid accounts, since those are more valuable to advertisers.

 

[MauiPa]

if this is not criminal, it should be. Lock them up!

 

[Michael Scrip]

Life360 probably gets a premium for paid accounts, since those are more valuable to advertisers.

Sad but true!

 

[mejsric]

I have three Tiles for keys, wallet and laptop bag and I like them but… if life360 purchase of Tile is finalized, I’ll get rid of them and purchase 3 AirTags.

and ur data is still not deleted.

 

[boss.king]

Can't see the distinction? Okay there, guy.

“If it’s free, you’re the product” has no distinction, that’s the whole point. It seems like you may have accidentally caught up to what I’m saying, even if you don’t realise it. Whether something is free isn’t the deciding factor, it’s whether the company is garbage or not.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

"All your base are belong to us!" - Life360

 

[femike]

For some tech companies and software houses, their business model revolves around the selling of user data. It is very profitable. User data can then be bought be governments, insurance companies, banks, etc. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc all make big money from it too.

 

[bradl]

The Life360 company is buying Tile, a company that sold (for money) a physical product to track things. This article has literally zero to do with Tile at this point (other than that Tile is in the process of being acquired by Life360), because the deal doesn't close until next year, Q1. So anything said in this article about "free" or "data" pertains to Life360 only.

To a degree. Tile is involved with this by extension of being bought out by Life360. And I can go further than that say that KeySmart is even involved with this:

KeySmart - The Best Compact Key Holder

KeySmart's premium pocket key organizers are compact yet functional holding up to 100 keys! Find the full selection of pocket key organizers & key holders here.

www.getkeysmart.com

They are the company that creates and sells the so-called "Swiss Army keyring", where all of your keys can go on a simple but compact keyring:

However, as you can see above, they also have one that comes with... yep! You guessed it! Tile. So in case you lose your keyring, you could use Tile to find your keys: keys to the house, car, bike, storage unit, whatever you choose to store on it.

So the fact that Life360 could effectively be selling the data on the location of various different products that use Tile is a big problem, related to Tile, then related to Keysmart. Those companies are probably going to re-evaluate that business relationship real quick.

BL.

 

[roar08]

At this point, if you're using a service that has no payment model attached to it ... it's on you.

 

[44267547]

At this point, if you're using a service that has no payment model attached to it ... it's on you.

So you’re saying if there is a payment model attached, there is no tracking? I’d say it goes both ways.

 

[Nuvi]

Find My is free too. Am I Apple’s product? No, so that pseudo-intellectual point that people love to drag out doesn’t hold up.

Note that nowhere have I defended Life360. I don’t know much about the company, I don’t use them. All I’m saying it that this stupid generalisation is stupid, whether it applies in this case or not.

Find My… is definitely not a free service but one tied to the purchase of a Apple device. It’s part of Apples eco system of products and services which offer added value to the customer and therefore keep us locked in.

 

[Localcelebrity]

I have three Tiles for keys, wallet and laptop bag and I like them but… if life360 purchase of Tile is finalized, I’ll get rid of them and purchase 3 AirTags.

If you care about your privacy: Don’t wait.

Ditch it now and request your account be deleted before Life360 takes ownership of the data.

 

[Localcelebrity]

I'm surprised Meta (aka. FB) does not already own both Life360 and Tile since both are already aligned with their own business model.

View attachment 1924081

Honestly surprised Zuck hasn’t taken a swing at doing precisely this yet. Please don’t give them ideas.

 

[SDJim]

Sigh... Once more for the people in back: "NOTHING IS FREE!"

 

[ineedanaccont]

I was using Life360 a few years ago and I can tell you this… their live tracking is much more reliable than Apple’s Find My version lol. We’re in December and still not working properly and it was a headlining feature for iOS 15.

No, this doesn’t mean I’m going back to Life360 but sheesh I wish Apple would fix their version of it.

Ya that's why car thieves prefer to use Airtags instead of Tile to steal cars right because Tile is SO accruate.

Apple AirTag Linked to Increasing Number of Car Thefts, Canadian Police Report

Apple's AirTags are being used in an increasing number of targeted car thefts in Canada, according to local police. Outlined in a news release from York Regional Police, investigators have identified a new method being used by thieves to track down and steal high-end vehicles that takes...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Dorfdad]

Tile sold their business soul to the devil and the outlook does not look good for them.

There are going to be millions and millions of people who won't know anything about the company selling their location data etc. I hope people stop using the products right away.

Agree and I just cancelled my subscription. No where when I used it signed up did I agree to be datamined and that data sold to third parties and especially tracking my children without informative consent. I just cancelled and deleted it from our devices. Scummy tactics

 

[44267547]

If you care about your privacy: Don’t wait.

Ditch it now and request your account be deleted before Life360 takes ownership of the data.

If you have a company that has shady tactics as Life360 does, [especially regarding this article], how can you be so confident that you they ‘will delete your data’? I certainly wouldn’t be.

 

[Squillace]

“If it’s free, you’re the product” has no distinction, that’s the whole point. It seems like you may have accidentally caught up to what I’m saying, even if you don’t realise it. Whether something is free isn’t the deciding factor, it’s whether the company is garbage or not.

You're having hard times to understand, unbelievable !

The difference between Find My and those guys is pretty simple. Yes, to use Find My you need to buy hardware in the first place. But up until the acquisition of Tile, the guys at Life360 don't have or sell any hardware whatsoever. So, if you subscribe their service, which is free, you are indeed the product. Doesn't matter if you paid for an iPhone or an Android.

 

[mocciat]

You can keep pasting that over and over, but the physical hardware is NOT free.

What hardware? Life360 is a free downloadable app. This has nothing to do with Tile besides the fact Life360 just acquired Tile.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

You can keep pasting that over and over, but the physical hardware is NOT free.

I think he talking about the Life360 app that is merely on the kid's iPhone, not Tile.

I had other parents recommend Life360 to me, and I was tempted I admit, but decided that it was far too invasive on my son's life to have his parents always know where he is. And worse, if he was seriously up to no good, he would then leave his phone behind, thus putting him in even worse danger. And if he did go missing, there would at least be Find My iPhone, which although requires the phone to be on, it is at least something, whereas I presume Life360 tracks a path of locations and times and uploads to their server at all times that the phone is on, so at least there would be a trail before the phone turned off.

 

[macsplusmacs]

LOL!

Where else do you think they found the $200 million to buy off the Tile Jerk CEO?