Technology

Note that Google’s anti-stalking measures may reduce the effectiveness of following tracked stolen items on a map since enterprising thieves can soon quickly discover hidden trackers, no matter which phone they use.

They can’t get the tag off my bike without specific tools, so if they’re warned that the bike they stole is tracking them and it leads to them abandoning the bike somewhere, all the better for me.

Thanks. Definitely prefer an open source tool by researchers over anything Google.

if I want to follow you home, I buy an airtag, drop it in your purse/truck bed/gym bag, wait for 45m and then go to where the airtag is.

That's why it's referring to anti stalking protections; the devices work too well, and allow you to track all sorts of things, even stuff that doesn't belong to you, or that has the agency to not want you to.

Man Allegedly Killed Girlfriend After She Took an AirTag Off Her Car That he Placed There

Woman used an AirTag to track boyfriend, then ran over and killed him, police say

It’s a literal tracking chip so someone could dump it on you and therefore track you

If someone sticks one to your car, they can track everywhere you go and you’d never realize it. The big thing with AirTags is that they aren’t just local tracking. They have access to the entire FindMy network, which is comprised of every single iOS device. So any time you drive past an iPhone, the AirTag is able to report in with your latest location.

With an iOS device, you’ll get an automatic alert if you’re being followed by an unfamiliar tag that hasn’t connected to its paired device in a while. So like if you’re with a friend, you won’t get alerts for their AirTag because the tag is near your friend’s paired phone. But if that friend drops their AirTag into your bag and you go home, you’ll get an alert that you’re being followed by an AirTag.

They connect to other devices and report their locations. There have been several cases of them being used for stalking.

My understanding is they’re a Bluetooth device that do not have direct Internet access on their own; how is their location being updated if you’re not pairing with them to allow them access to your device?

Apple allows them to connect to any device in the "Find My" network and phone home, regardless of who it belongs to. Presumably that includes you driving next to someone with an iPhone if the tag is in your car. It's supposed to also alert you f it's determined to be travelling with you and the owner is not nearby, but I think that requires you to also have an Apple device, or install and actively use Apple's Tracker Detect app for Android.

https://www.apple.com/airtag/#:~:text=How%20does%20it%20work

I've been told that it already does if they are iphone users

I've added support for the site.

@[email protected]

I'm sorry, I don't know how to handle links for that site. You may contact my maintainer, @[email protected], if you wish to add it to supported sites!

AFAIK were stuck waiting until Apple rolls out their version of tracker alerts