Tile Decries Apple's iOS 13 Location Tracking Changes, Calls on Congress to 'Level the Playing Field' [Updated]

[GGJstudios]

That would make the iPhone a poor product since it depends on modems from Qualcomm, glass from Corning, and screens from Samsung.

You take those three away and replace them with the alternatives and you have a pretty crappy phone.

When you consider that Apple is continuing to reduce their reliance on others, such as buying Intel's smartphone modem business, it's clear that they're taking action and moving in the right direction, rather than simply whining to the government that Qualcomm has something they don't.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Heaven forbid a company become big and successful and generate money for its shareholders, employees, and third-party beneficiaries. If you're a small business there are advantages to that - you can be more nimble, adapt more easily, etc. than a large corporation. But instead, these companies complain to the government - who is all too happy to tear into any big money-maker as that is a direct threat to their desired socialist control state.

honEstly You have no idea what You are talking about.

 

[yockster]

after watching 30 min of the live hearings, tile is complaining that Apple is forcing the apple id instead of my Facebook or Google account to sign in to my apps or create accounts, and s of the find me app, yeah, sorry, your tiles are not the best sorry....and does not compare to find me from apple.

 

[california_kid]

Listen up whoever the CEO of Tile is. If your product was even half decent, Apple or another "major tech company" would have acquired you rather than spend R&D dollars and marketing to bring their own product to market. They have done this with countless other companies like yours.

Just let that sink in for a moment....

 

[TJ82]

Seriously, if your companies success is based on what another company is doing, then you have a poor product.

ALL COMPANIES have their success depend on what other companies are doing.

Think before type, no?

 

[Zadigre]

I have a Tile and sometimes use the app, but there is absolutely no reason why the app needs constant access to your location. When I need to find my keys, I open the app and press the "Ring" button...even at that point, Tile has no reason to know my location. The app still works if you disable location access but it pesters you incessantly to re-enable location services.

Tile needs to know your location to "help" other Tile users to find their Tile all around the world.
without that, Tile is just local to you... which is not that great.

 

[ani4ani]

Tile is a bunch of whiners

Apple was the little guy once and some of us are old enough to remember them being whiners...hell they still whine now

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

This is tough. I've been a long time Tile owner, and I like their products but things like reminders you left something behind are always too late. Still they've helped me keep track of all kinds of things. And I, like I am sure so many of their other customers, would jump all over Apple Tags. I'm sure they would be smaller, louder, and have much better tracking. I do love my Tiles but I am sure they will suffer the same fate as my beloved Pebble watch did when the Apple Watch came along. But as a consumer I am not in the business of keeping other businesses afloat. Let the best products come to market and consumers will pick what they think is the best one.

pebble was a good example for your staement being wrong. It was a great idea, but they lacked money and technological and production support. All apple has plenty of. Its not a leveled playing field.
apple watch is shiny but pebble was superior in almost every category.
consumers are very manipulated thru shine and apple has plenty of it.

 

[aandre]

Seriously, if your companies success is based on what another company is doing, then you have a poor product.

Every company's success depends on what other companies are doing.

 

[ani4ani]

Seriously, if your companies success is based on what another company is doing, then you have a poor product.

Apple wouldn’t have any products since nothing in a single Apple product is not based on what another company is doing

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

That would make the iPhone a poor product since it depends on modems from Qualcomm, glass from Corning, and screens from Samsung.

You take those three away and replace them with the alternatives and you have a pretty crappy phone.

we had that crappy intel phone, remember? Apple would fall if all their suppliers go on a real strike. Huawei is already far superior in silicon and lenses and batteries.

 

[idmean]

Watching that live stream is most interesting. Tile’s attorney Kirsten Daru seems to argue that Apple is placing ads that should divert people searching for Tile (online) and lead them to the App Store. Why should they even be doing that? Also, the other arguments brought forward are rather vague...

 

[ani4ani]

Heaven forbid a company become big and successful and generate money for its shareholders, employees, and third-party beneficiaries. If you're a small business there are advantages to that - you can be more nimble, adapt more easily, etc. than a large corporation. But instead, these companies complain to the government - who is all too happy to tear into any big money-maker as that is a direct threat to their desired socialist control state.

heaven forbid the worlds richest, biggest tech company would complain to government., security requests, universal charging cables....tariffs anyone? This week alone!

 

[centauratlas]

Maybe if Tile wants to control how they help people find their devices, they should make the devices people are using? Not just the things that attach to those devices.

On the other hand, nah.

And eliminate the subscription fees. That is a big annoyance.

 

[california_kid]

pebble was a good example for your staement being wrong. It was a great idea, but they lacked money and technological and production support. All apple has plenty of. Its not a leveled playing field.
apple watch is shiny but pebble was superior in almost every category.
consumers are very manipulated thru shine and apple has plenty of it.

Not exactly. Pebble's initial pitch was just smartwatch and could not secure investment funding so they had to go with Kickstarter. Fitbit's pitch was health improvement and monitoring and had no problems with investment funding and going IPO with the latest news of Google planning to acquire for $2B. Pebble's failure was a bad product idea. By the time they work up and try to add health monitoring in 2016, it was too late. Ironically Fitbit purchased some of their assets.

 

[iGeneo]

I have a Tile and sometimes use the app, but there is absolutely no reason why the app needs constant access to your location. When I need to find my keys, I open the app and press the "Ring" button...even at that point, Tile has no reason to know my location. The app still works if you disable location access but it pesters you incessantly to re-enable location services.

Not a fan of Tile at all (Their Privacy Policy sucks) but I believe they need that functionality so you can summon the phone from the Tile device. Their version of "Find my Phone" that is limited to bluetooth range.

 

[ActionableMango]

I have a Tile and sometimes use the app, but there is absolutely no reason why the app needs constant access to your location. When I need to find my keys, I open the app and press the "Ring" button...even at that point, Tile has no reason to know my location. The app still works if you disable location access but it pesters you incessantly to re-enable location services.

This is incorrect. Tile has two very good reasons to constantly track user location. It is fundamental to how it works.

1) Let's say Bob loses his widget somewhere while running errands. Bob doesn't know where. If Tile (the app/service) had constant access to Bob's location, it will know the last time and location Bob's widget was in range of Bob's phone, because it had been tracked. Bob can go to that last known location, press the Ring button, and find his widget.

On the other hand, if Bob had location tracking turned off, then Tile has no idea where and when the widget was last in range of the phone. Bob will have to retrace his route of errands, constantly hitting the Ring button every 10 feet due to the short range of Bluetooth, and hope for the best.

2) Let's say Sara has a Tile on her ferret's collar. The ferret gets loose accidentally and is running around the neighborhood. Sara had location tracking turned on for Tile, but it doesn't really matter since the last reported location in range of her phone was the ferret at home.

However, thankfully, there are many other Tile users around. And when Sara reports her Tile lost, the entire Tile Community Network looks for the ferret. If and when the ferret ever gets in range of anyone's Tile, it is reported to Sara. In a twist of fate, the ferret is hiding out near Bob's house, and because it is in range of Bob's phone and he has location tracking services on, Sara can go get her ferret.

----

So you can see, every single person turning off Tile location services loses feature #1 and weakens feature #2.

If you have location services off, then you are unable to benefit in scenario #1, and you are also refusing to help others find their items in scenario #2. That's totally fine, use the product however you like. Maybe you only need a "I want to find something I set down in the house somewhere" device, and maybe you prefer higher personal privacy over helping others.

But that is NOT the same as saying Tile has absolutely no reason to have location services on. They have very good, fundamental reasons for wanting that to be on.

 

[zubikov]

Ahh boo-hoo! They made a quick buck selling pieces of plastic at an incredible markup, on the back of another company that laid the groundwork. And now they have the audacity to complain that this other, totally independent company is changing its policy to serve its own interest, and that's somehow unfair to Tile? What did they think was going to happen? Gtfo.

 

[ajfahey]

Well Tile shouldn’t be selling products with non-rechargeable/non-replaceable batteries. Once Apple come out with their tile it will revolutionise tracking of products all over the world in a secure way thanks to the clever Public/Private key system they’ve developed with iOS 13.

Tile does sell devices with replaceable batteries and have for over a year now.

 

[GGJstudios]

We’re going to start a business providing goods or apps or services for Apple users. What’s the first thing we should consider?

At some point in the future, Apple could introduce their own version of these goods or apps or services. So how do we plan for that?

If you can’t answer that question intelligently, don’t start the business.

 

[WRX-SRQ]

Soooo, small companies ride the coattails of bigger companies by making accessories then want to dictate what the big companies are doing? Tile and every other company in that suit are only in business because of Apple, you make products based on what Apple makes, they owe you nothing, you owe them everything. You don't hear companies like WeatherTec (floor mat company) complaining ... to congress of all things ... that Ford, Chevy, and Dodge are making new models and continuously changing their floor panels. That's because WeatherTec, like these accessory makers, are at Apple's mercy, you're lucky Apple even made the iPhone for you to profit off it.

 

[ajfahey]

Seriously, if your companies success is based on what another company is doing, then you have a poor product.

Apple is dependent on Intel and has been for some time. Yes, they are working on their own chip now but this is a new development. Apple is dependent on a broad range of other commodity and non commodity products like chips, cameras and displays. I suppose in your mind it means they must have poor products as well.

 

[Exorthium]

I do not trust Tile with constant location access. I don't see why it needs it. It also wants you to enable backgrounding for the app. The thing is.. when you turn it off you get 3-4 pop-ups every time you open the app asking you to enable everything. It also sends you notifications saying Tile is not running or that location services are off.

I am definitely not getting another Tile if Apple comes out with a tracker. Really dislike the company's practice of wanting all your data.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Not that I can really come up with a use case for me personally, but I'll never be buying a Tile product from now on.

 

[ActionableMango]

I do not trust Tile with constant location access. I don't see why it needs it.

If you don't trust them, that's fine. I am an advocate of better privacy and I understand.

However, Tile absolutely needs location services be on. It is fundamental to how Tile works. See my post earlier in the thread where I explain this.