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AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

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Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#31

Post by azinman2 »

> Our goal is to protect privacy and to find out how many people are opposed to tracking.

Asking how many ppl are opposed to tracking is a silly question that won’t get you anywhere — it’s answer in a vacuum doesn’t make sense as it needs to be contextualized. “Are you ok with google seeing your IP so they can sell you ads to give you free YouTube” is an example of context where people see trade offs. Most people won’t understand the full spectrum of what’s going on, and if it all in the end results in just ads, many are fine with that as long as they’re getting free stuff with it.

The bigger questions on societal level trade offs shouldn’t be answered by lay people but rather regulation in the name of public interest.

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#32

Post by ollien »

tinus_hn wrote: post #19
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #10

Pretty 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.

I don't think that's an Apple thing, but rather a BLE thing, isn't it (though technically opt-in)?

https://www.bluetooth.com/blog/bluetooth-technology-protecti...

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#33

Post by ollien »

shreddit wrote: post #30
TeMPOraL wrote: post #29

> With the app you can play a sound on AirTags and find it easily. I wonder how it does that. Unauthenticated BLE characteristic? This would imply anyone could force an arbitrary AirTag to make a sound. Obvious application: force all AirTags nearby to keep making sounds.

Seems so, there’s a constant named AIR_TAG_SOUND_CHARACTERISTIC with this value: 7DFC9001-7D1C-4951-86AA-8D9728F8D66C

The small evil part of me wants to extract this part of the source and just bring my phone onto public transit for a while to see what happens.

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#34

Post by mikestew »

politelemon wrote: post #25
jeroenhd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

It irks me that the onus of not being tracked is on the "target" themselves. Further, there's no protection if you have no smartphone but are in a dense population area surrounded by devices that are part of this surveillance network. There is no aspect of this that is privacy friendly except for the hand waving.

There’s protection even if you’re standing there naked (except for the AirTag, of course, that has been secretly duct-taped to your buttocks): if the paired phone isn’t around, the AirTag makes noise. I can confirm this because my spouse is currently out of town, and I’ve grabbed her RV keys a couple of times to put stuff in the RV. And every time I pick the keys up, the AirTag goes off. It eventually shuts up just shy of my threshold of looking for a way to turn it off. (Or I could just make sure to grab my keys instead of hers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#35

Post by Scoundreller »

ollien wrote: post #33
shreddit wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems so, there’s a constant named AIR_TAG_SOUND_CHARACTERISTIC with this value: 7DFC9001-7D1C-4951-86AA-8D9728F8D66C

The small evil part of me wants to extract this part of the source and just bring my phone onto public transit for a while to see what happens.

You don’t AirDrop cat photos to people at mass gatherings?

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#36

Post by herf »

daniel-thompson wrote: post #13
eatbitseveryday wrote: post #12

This 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?

Constant buzzing would presumably make the batteries run out.

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#37

Post by rootusrootus »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #17
daniel-thompson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I doubt they let you turn off the tracking

I'm not sure how they would even do that in the first place, since the AirTag doesn't track anything.

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#38

Post by judge2020 »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #17
daniel-thompson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Although, if you find one, it's trivial to remove the battery or smash it with a hammer.

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#39

Post by cianmm »

mikestew wrote: post #34
politelemon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It irks me that the onus of not being tracked is on the "target" themselves. Further, there's no protection if you have no smartphone but are in a dense population area surrounded by devices that are part of this surveillance network. There is no aspect of this that is privacy friendly except for the hand waving.

There’s protection even if you’re standing there naked (except for the AirTag, of course, that has been secretly duct-taped to your buttocks): if the paired phone isn’t around, the AirTag makes noise. I can confirm this because my spouse is currently out of town, and I’ve grabbed her RV keys a couple of times to put stuff in the RV. And every time I pick the keys up, the AirTag goes off. It eventually shuts up just s…

You can remove the battery pretty easily thankfully, if it’s annoying you. https://found.apple.com/airtag/disable#

Re: AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories

#40

Post by spookthesunset »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #10

Pretty 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 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.

There is nothing Dropbox does that can’t be done with rsync.

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