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Today I discovered AirTags are completely useless.

S

scaramoosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
852
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So I bought a few AirTags back in the day and put one on stuff in case they got stolen. Well my bike got stolen and even though the AirTag was hidden, it was randomly thrown out on the side of the road.

Today I put one in my dog’s harness for the same reason. It’s a long shot that they won’t take the harness off if stolen, but it should be better than nothing. However I left my phone at home and the AirTag kept telling the person I was with that there is an AirTag there despite it not being in lost mode or anything.


So if it’s going to tell the person that has stolen something it is there, what is the point?

I might as well just bin them all and buy a brand that actually works. Why would I need an AirTag if the product hasn’t been stolen?
 
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scaramoosh said:
the AirTag was hidden, it was randomly thrown out on the side of the road.
Click to expand...
So you're saying its useless because the airtag was poorly hidden and easily discovered by the theif?

I'd say that the use case of airtags makes it very useful. I have one for tv remote which get lost so easily. My keys - again which are easily misplaced. My daughters are using airtags to ensure they don't leave their passports behind

I don't think Apple markets the airtags as theft recovery aides, but rather finding lost items - your bike was not lost, stolen.

1713350086865.png
 
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scaramoosh said:
So I bought a few AirTags back in the day and put one on stuff in case they got stolen. Well my bike got stolen and even though the AirTag was hidden, it was randomly thrown out on the side of the road.

Today I put one in my dog’s harness for the same reason. It’s a long shot that they won’t take the harness off if stolen, but it should be better than nothing. However I left my phone at home and the AirTag kept telling the person I was with that there is an AirTag there despite it not being in lost mode or anything.


So if it’s going to tell the person that has stolen something it is there, what is the point?

I might as well just bin them all and buy a brand that actually works. Why would I need an AirTag if the product hasn’t been stolen?
Click to expand...
The AirTags have never been marketed as anti theft.

There are products out there designed for this kind of tracking if that’s what you’re after.

But personally with AirTags specifically on balance I’d prefer stolen property be unrecoverable, than have it easy to be used for stalking.
 
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scaramoosh said:
So I bought a few AirTags back in the day and put one on stuff in case they got stolen. Well my bike got stolen and even though the AirTag was hidden, it was randomly thrown out on the side of the road.

Today I put one in my dog’s harness for the same reason. It’s a long shot that they won’t take the harness off if stolen, but it should be better than nothing. However I left my phone at home and the AirTag kept telling the person I was with that there is an AirTag there despite it not being in lost mode or anything.


So if it’s going to tell the person that has stolen something it is there, what is the point?

I might as well just bin them all and buy a brand that actually works. Why would I need an AirTag if the product hasn’t been stolen?
Click to expand...
Apple clear states AirTags are not designed for anti-theft and you found out exactly the reason why..
 
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scaramoosh said:
the AirTag kept telling the person I was with that there is an AirTag there despite it not being in lost mode or anything.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that happened to you; sometimes a product is caught between competing pressures and goes a way contrary to your interests.

Obviously many owners would hope it could be used to locate stolen property in a pinch; I consider stolen a subset of lost, though debating semantics may not be useful.

The problem is there's been a lot of criticism about potential misuse for stalking, which while understandable, seems to ignore a great many things have potential bad uses outside their official ones - knives, guns, cars, pipes, lengths of chain, etc... iPhones are common; if the AirTag notifies any nearby iPhone of its presence, there's a decent chance it'll notify the thief! One would hope people who can afford iPhones wouldn't steal, but sadly such hopes would often be in vain, I fear.

Turns out I'm not the first to wonder what could be done about that...a little quick Googling turned up this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AirTags/comments/n1z5j0

Which raises a fascinating question - if people wanting hidden silent stolen property trackers and the AirTag isn't a good match for that need, what alternative products are?

P.S.: Judging from
https://www.reddit.com/r/AirTags/comments/15hfz2u/_/jurjpik
this issue isn't one you can likely hack the AirTag to get around, so probably will need an alternative product.
 
scaramoosh said:
So I bought a few AirTags back in the day and put one on stuff in case they got stolen. Well my bike got stolen and even though the AirTag was hidden, it was randomly thrown out on the side of the road.

Today I put one in my dog’s harness for the same reason. It’s a long shot that they won’t take the harness off if stolen, but it should be better than nothing. However I left my phone at home and the AirTag kept telling the person I was with that there is an AirTag there despite it not being in lost mode or anything.


So if it’s going to tell the person that has stolen something it is there, what is the point?

I might as well just bin them all and buy a brand that actually works. Why would I need an AirTag if the product hasn’t been stolen?
Click to expand...
Words mean things.

Apple clearly says that AirTags are used to find things that are lost. Lost items are those items that you misplaced.

Items that are stolen are items that are taken from you without consent. Apple does not make the AirTags as a recovery tool for theft. Apple never advertised AirTags for recovery from theft.
 
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JohnRckr said:
If you compare Airtag to Samsung equivalent, the Airtag is years behind.
Click to expand...

They say the opposite in this comparison?

edition.cnn.com

Apple AirTag vs. Samsung Galaxy SmartTag: which tracker is best for you? | CNN Underscored

Losing things is the worst. Keys, backpacks, coats and wallets, for example, are all likely to be misplaced in the mad scramble of daily life. Thankfully, technology (of course) offers a solution in the form of Bluetooth trackers like Apple’s AirTags or Samsung’s SmartTag+s. These little...
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
 
It's behaving exactly as designed. It's an item to help you find lost items. It uses the power of the network of iPhones out there. Apple knew from the beginning that it could be used for stalking. So they built-in a few features.

If the iPhone reports the position, nothing happens. If any other iPhone continually reports it's position, without the paired phone doing so, it will alert that phone of it's presence. It's not a one of. It needs to ping the same phone for a period og time. That's how airport workers don't get "AirTag following you" messages all day long.
 
scaramoosh said:
I might as well just bin them all and buy a brand that actually works. Why would I need an AirTag if the product hasn’t been stolen?
Click to expand...

I hesitate to get involved in this but....

This topic has been covered ad nauseam, Airtags are meant to help find LOST items, not STOLEN items. This has been clear from the launch of the product.

You should be mad at yourself for purchasing a product that was not meant for your use case. If your place of employment was an hour car ride from your home would you buy a bicycle and then complain that takes you hours to get to work instead of an hour?
 
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There are GPS tracking devices with massive batteries for stolen vehicles tracking purpose.
Or you can use an old iphone 4S/5S + a power-bank for the same purpose, if you have a big enough hidden place in your vehicle.
Find my phone = Find my stolen vehicle....
It's just the running cost that needs to be concerned (monthly 4G subscription is needed for data transferring)
 
I wouldn't call them useless... They've come in handy for me many times for items that have been lost, misplaced or left behind. I don't think they are designed for recovery of stolen items and are not marketed as such.
 
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Sooooooooo tired of click bait posts that are abandoned by the OP immediately after submission. Outside of boredom I cannot fathom their motivation.
 
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