Google says its own tracker ecosystem is on hold until iOS has the same protection.
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Android phones can now tell you if there’s an AirTag following you
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This just highly limits the utility of these as theft recovery devices. Great for keys, bad for use on a bicycle.
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So suggestions from certain police departments that you use air tags to prevent/mitigate car theft (or theft of anything else for that matter) will now have a simple counter-measure available to the thief?
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The point of AirTags has always been to remind you of where your things are, not for lost/theft prevention.
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How would you propose Google and others protect against stalking then if not in this manner? Unfortunately, seems like another case of "this is why we can't have nice things" with respect to their very valid/helpful use for theft recovery. Personally, I'm glad they are adding this feature. My aunt was recently stalked by her soon-to-be ex-husband via AirTags. Luckily, he was dumb enough to tape them to her driver's side car mirror in plain sight
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So you're saying that Apple now has incentive to not quickly support this open standard, because Google has committed to not rolling out their Find My Device network until Apple does? Should be interesting to see how that turns out...
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Friends of mine use it for a slightly more grim purpose. They use it to locate their father who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The last few times he managed to run away from care it actually helped them locate him rather quickly before something bad could happen to him
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Tracking tags pay for themselves in a very short time if you put them on a tape measure in your shop.
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The Google find my tags feature was originally due for mid July, then this summer and now it's delayed until apple do updates for a not complete specification that's not due to be completed until the end of the year? Anyone else think this is a convenient excuse and it's either not going to happen or is going to be another year?
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Speaking of these trackers, where the hell are the devices that work with Android Find My Device? They're all still pre-order as far as I can tell.
E: I know the article mentioned the network expansion being put on hold, but I guess I wasn't expecting that to effect devices that were already ready to launch. That kinda sucks, but I appreciate they're making it difficult to use these devices for stalking.
E: I know the article mentioned the network expansion being put on hold, but I guess I wasn't expecting that to effect devices that were already ready to launch. That kinda sucks, but I appreciate they're making it difficult to use these devices for stalking.
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Is that true? I'm not familiar with Chipolo, but isn't Tile it's own network and works with both Android and iOS?
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They can also make devices that work with Apple OR Google's network. And if every iPhone or Android device is feeding those networks, why would you ever buy a device now that relies on a third network that has to be smaller than either of those networks?
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As many people have pointed out, it’s hard to make a tracker that’s a good anti-theft device without making it a good stalking device at the same time.
I wonder if it would be feasible to require police reports or some documentation for stolen items to bridge the gap. Imagine if a user starts with a small allotment of ‘mark item as stolen’ actions, maybe just one or two. Marking an item as stolen disables the anti-stalking features for some time period. Then if the user uploads a police report for the stolen item that would keep the anti-stalking features disabled longer and give them one more ‘mark item as stolen’ action.
I’m sure there are issues with the above approach, like what if the user recovers the stolen item themselves without filing a police report. But I think there’s potential in allowing trackers to be used as anti-theft devices with severe restrictions.
I wonder if it would be feasible to require police reports or some documentation for stolen items to bridge the gap. Imagine if a user starts with a small allotment of ‘mark item as stolen’ actions, maybe just one or two. Marking an item as stolen disables the anti-stalking features for some time period. Then if the user uploads a police report for the stolen item that would keep the anti-stalking features disabled longer and give them one more ‘mark item as stolen’ action.
I’m sure there are issues with the above approach, like what if the user recovers the stolen item themselves without filing a police report. But I think there’s potential in allowing trackers to be used as anti-theft devices with severe restrictions.
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That's how I initially read the statement too, but on rereading it, it's more that Apple and Google have agreed to have a standard, which isn't finalized. Apple doesn't want to implement the anti-stalking features of the standard until it's finalized. Google puts out a weasel-worded statement so they can make Apple look bad, though Apple's being entirely reasonable (in this case.)
Contrast this to RCS, where Google is trying to shame Apple into joining a standard that Apple has no desire to join, rightly or wrongly.
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Yeah, let's put the keys in the hands of cops. They're totally trustworthy and never abuse their powers. /s
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I'm waiting for someone to start selling a 10 mm socket with a built in tracking tag.
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I think that last part, "popular and easy to use" is what makes them better than those "plenty of other devices" you mention. We have different restrictions for mopeds and motorcycles despite the fact that both are devices to get you somewhere. If regulations haven't caught up to the differences in capabilities, it's probably responsible for companies to do something about it themselves.
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This. It's generally a bad idea to try and track down stolen property anyway. It's also a bad idea to allow civilians to track other people without everyone involved consenting to it. If that means property is harder to recover, that's a fair tradeoff. Personal safety trumps property.
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Sort of, but Tile is/was honestly basically useless outside the house, or really crowded cities, especially compared to AirTags, as Tile's network only worked with phones that also had Tile's application installed. So if you lost something, you were hoping that someone with the Tile application installed walked nearby. AirTags work with almost all Apple device, so a much larger install base.
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Disabling the AirTag is essentially removing the battery. And as long as the owner of the tag is nearby, nobody else will get a notification. ((Edit: by "nearby", I mean Bluetooth range. Which can be upwards of 40m.))
The Anti-Stalking measures are in place because assholes use a genuinely good piece of tech for nefarious reasons. It really is "the reason we can't have nice things".
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This depends on your threat model. If your threat model is "Most people are decent people, and would return something to someone if they knew how to," AirTags are a great complement to that. If your threat model is "Most people are horrible, and will steal anything they can," then yes, AirTags are mostly useless.
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Yes, I'm not sure what your point here is. I mean, I could quibble with the tone, but it's an accurate enough summary.
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If people are disabling your trackers around your home/shop to screw with you, I think you got bigger problems....
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Tracking is a core function for Android, and with this very nice new browser standard also unavoidable with Chrome. But giving that tracking info away, for free, that hurts too much. Only Google shall track you, and not anyone else!
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I have a PebbleBee tracker in my wallet. I can set it up to work one of two ways - either on their network with their features but limited to their users or on Apple’s Find My network with limited features but access to Apple’s users.
I’ve set it up on Find My. I don’t get the same exact pinpointing that I would get with an AirTag and can’t use my wallet tracker to make my phone ring, but it’s helped me find my wallet a couple times, which has been nice.
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I'm reasonably sure Apple doesn't care about this all, outside of wanting to get a PR firestorm behind them.
AirTags are neat, and might keep someone in the Apple ecosystem, but it's not like it's a huge selling point of the platform, and I doubt it would incentivize someone to switch.
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It'll probably be Snap-On and cost as much as the average home.
Given the vapor pressure of 10 mm sockets, that'd put the ROI at about seven months.
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