221–230 of 383 posts
This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. GPS trackers designed to be magnet-attached to a car which report their location via cell signal cost ~$20 on Amazon. You then tend to need to pay for either a SIM card or a subscription to the device maker's service -- bringing you up to about the cost of an AirTag. These are much harder to detect, as you mig…
> This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. Or it's news because unlike GPS trackers, AirTags create the ability to be psychologically abusive to victims by attaching them to cars or dropping them in purses at little cost, risk, or effort. Wanna take a guess as to how many assholes out there just want to make a mouthy cunt from the bar lose sleep vs.…
Hey it might be easy to forget we're talking about a real person here, and I'm sure you mean this is how a hypothetical person could be perceived by another hypothetical person, but this kind of language directed at a victim of a stalking attempt feels really icky.
It's baffling how Apple on the one hand claims that user privacy is the most important thing to them, but on the other hand they built an anonymous tracking network that can be abused for many nefarious purposes, and everyone who has an iPhone was made a part of the network whether they like it or not. There are so many things that are questionable about Airtags. Another way to abuse it would be for example, you coul…
How is this is any way an anonymous tracker? The police could get a subpoena for Apple to divulge the iCloud account, credit card, and phone number of the owner of this AirTag. Using air tags to conduct illegal activity is stupid.
However, my main criticism (that Apple customers were not asked whether they want to participate in a network that may indirectly reveal their location) still stands.
Number of times I've had a true positive alert from Apple's new device tracking notifications: 0 Number of times I've had false positives due to intermittent connectivity issues with my airpods or from my partner using mine: over a dozen. I'm this close to disabling all of these features
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do recongnize that. Does only the first person selling a dangerous product deserve scorn? "X did it first!" is the excuse of a toddler. They've also made it easier than gps trackers (no sim card needed), probably safer for stalkers (does Apple have a way to report AirTags used for crime and/or find out who owns it?) and it's more effective than Tile. It also favors their own ecosystem, because only iphone owners ge…
Beating up on Apple for making something LESS able to be abused and more transparent/understandable just seems disingenuous though? The difference in level of abuse for something that will actively draw attention to itself after some period of time vs something of the same cost that was previously widely available and was more subtle and would not, is pretty big. And it is in the favor of Apple not being abusive or f…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. Or it's news because unlike GPS trackers, AirTags create the ability to be psychologically abusive to victims by attaching them to cars or dropping them in purses at little cost, risk, or effort. Wanna take a guess as to how many assholes out there just want to make a mouthy cunt from the bar lose sleep vs.…
Why exactly is it lower effort than a cellular GPS tracker from Amazon? They're around the same size, and roughly the same cost.
This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. GPS trackers designed to be magnet-attached to a car which report their location via cell signal cost ~$20 on Amazon. You then tend to need to pay for either a SIM card or a subscription to the device maker's service -- bringing you up to about the cost of an AirTag. These are much harder to detect, as you mig…
> This is news just because it's an Apple device being used for something that was already trivially possible. Or it's news because unlike GPS trackers, AirTags create the ability to be psychologically abusive to victims by attaching them to cars or dropping them in purses at little cost, risk, or effort. Wanna take a guess as to how many assholes out there just want to make a mouthy cunt from the bar lose sleep vs.…
While it’s theoretically possible that this happened, I think this particular story was made up. For a number of reasons: 1) How did the stalker know that that’s her car? She said she was on a night out. Unless she went back to her car all the time, he must have seen her arrive in it. 2) Sticking an AirTag to the inside of the front wheel well isn’t easy. There is dirt and grime there and the surfaces aren’t flat. Th…
Not to disagree with your overall point, but on #2 magnets work well for this and there are a lot of “hide-a-key” type things on the market that are often used in wheel wells by people who have a history of locking their keys in their car.
So no, this story doesn’t line up and looks more like cheap attention grabbing at the expensive of a real problem with Apple’s AirTags.
It's baffling how Apple on the one hand claims that user privacy is the most important thing to them, but on the other hand they built an anonymous tracking network that can be abused for many nefarious purposes, and everyone who has an iPhone was made a part of the network whether they like it or not. There are so many things that are questionable about Airtags. Another way to abuse it would be for example, you coul…
You can hide an arbitrary device near a victim's driveway and your choice of surveillance device is an Airtag? Come on.