Legislation is the proper protection here.
Kidnapping is already illegal. Curious, it still happens
Name one company in the US that's built business around kidnapping.
AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
11–20 of 156 posts
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#12This seems to notify you of nearby tags but does not disable them in some way.
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#13This seems to notify you of nearby tags but does not disable them in some way.
How would an app on device A disable device B?
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#14This seems to notify you of nearby tags but does not disable them in some way.
You need a separate app for that, I think I've heard it called "Ball-peen Hammer"
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there a specific policy you think should be legislated that would prevent unwanted tracking?
A blanket ban on hoarding, storing and selling personal data for any purposes other than natsec. Basically, treat personal data like nuclear materials in the laws.
How does that relate to AirTags (or similar devices, like Tile)? The companies that make these trackers aren't selling the data to anyone external, only displaying it to the person who bought the device.
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#16Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#17This seems to notify you of nearby tags but does not disable them in some way.
How would an app on device A disable device B?
Airtags do allow non-owner devices to disable some functionality such as turning off the alarm. I doubt they let you turn off the tracking since that would completely defeat the anti-theft aspect of Airtags.
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
A blanket ban on hoarding, storing and selling personal data for any purposes other than natsec. Basically, treat personal data like nuclear materials in the laws.
How does that relate to AirTags (or similar devices, like Tile)? The companies that make these trackers aren't selling the data to anyone external, only displaying it to the person who bought the device.
Tracking someone like that would be a felony, ideally, with an order to stop operations for the company who's facilitating it. Using my analogy above, that's like dropping a bag with nuclear waste into someone's pocket.
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#19Pretty cool but why does it have to be limited to AirTag or any specific devices? It would be easy to expand it to keep track of any nearby Bluetooth device and a corresponding whitelist. (Or do AirTag devices rotate Bluetooth MACs?) Airtags are just one implementation of a Bluetooth transmitter and a long life battery but anyone could probably build a similar device dedicated to tracking with off the shelf parts.
AirTags, like all Apple devices, use randomized Bluetooth addresses, otherwise they allow scanners to follow their users location over time.
Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
#20Pretty cool but why does it have to be limited to AirTag or any specific devices? It would be easy to expand it to keep track of any nearby Bluetooth device and a corresponding whitelist. (Or do AirTag devices rotate Bluetooth MACs?) Airtags are just one implementation of a Bluetooth transmitter and a long life battery but anyone could probably build a similar device dedicated to tracking with off the shelf parts.
Airtags are the only devices (that I know of) that can leverage a worldwide network of iPhones to transmit their location rather than a power intensive LTE or GSM link. They also don't require any external antennae for location determination like those GPS trackers stalkers use.
Those features make make AirTags more practical for any use, good or bad. They do rotate Bluetooth MAC addresses so only you and Apple can follow where the tag has been, supposedly.
Furthermore, if your target has an iPhone, you can partially leverage their phone against them. Of course Apple saw this coming and added a warning. If you're on Android you'll have to rely on apps like these (or the theoretical app Apple promised at some point) to prevent AirStalking
Tile has offered a similar mechanism for years but the lack of a worldwide network of automatic data collection points makes their network a lot less useful for good or bad people.