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Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

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Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#281

Post by yawaramin »

godelski wrote: post #169
yawaramin wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're caught placing an AirTag on someone's car it's easier to pretend you dropped it and are looking for it. That doesn't make any sense. If someone catches me placing an AirTag in the undercarriage of a car, it's pretty difficult to pretend that I dropped it there.

Depends how you were caught. On your back reaching up? No. On your knees? Yeah. Consider that this tag was placed in the wheel well, which doesn't require getting on your back and would only take a few seconds. It isn't like someone is there for a significant period of time. Especially since you can then produce said AirTag after inquiry and people will generally believe the claim even if suspicious. All you have to…

Well if you were caught squatting down, with your hand literally in the wheel well of the car, again, that makes it pretty hard to argue you dropped something there. That's what we're talking about here.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#282

Post by lazyasciiart »

xwdv wrote: post #102
kayodelycaon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of abductions of children are by family. Same with other crimes against children. People they know are far more dangerous than people they don’t. The predators aren’t hiding in the bushes, they are already in the house.

This is some kind of bias, the reason this is true is because it’s far easier for those people to abduct a child whose habits they know well. Now that the technology to track anyone is far easier to come by, maybe that will change.

No, that is not the reason. Most children are abducted in some kind of custody dispute, by someone who believes that they already have some kind of rights over the child.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#283

Post by nomel »

pmontra wrote: post #226
diebeforei485 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly is it lower effort than a cellular GPS tracker from Amazon? They're around the same size, and roughly the same cost.

When you open a GPS tracker you find a SIM and that's enough to identify the owner in any country that requires an ID to get a SIM. AirTags are anonymous by design AFAIK. Furthermore the owner is spared with the burden of getting a SIM (time and cost), ID or not.

AirTag also has an account linked to it. It’s required to function. In fact, if you find an air tag, you can scan it and it shows the serial and the last four digits of the owners phone number. I’m sure Apple will give the full details to the authorities, if requested.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#284

Post by tshaddox »

solveit wrote: post #221
tshaddox wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that’s probably a larger and more expensive device.

I don't think the limiting factor in child abductions is a few hundred dollars in the kidnapper's possession.

No, but factors other than limiting factors can also affect the number of child abductions.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#285

Post by ceejayoz »

simondotau wrote: post #219
ceejayoz wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can. Disconnect it from one person's iCloud, connect it to the other. We did it with our cat's AirTag when I got a newer iPhone, so we could use the more accurate location. I do wish there was a share feature, though.

The lack of integration with family sharing has made AirTags mostly useless for me.

It’s a genuinely baffling omission.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#286

Post by stavros »

yawaramin wrote: post #281
godelski wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends how you were caught. On your back reaching up? No. On your knees? Yeah. Consider that this tag was placed in the wheel well, which doesn't require getting on your back and would only take a few seconds. It isn't like someone is there for a significant period of time. Especially since you can then produce said AirTag after inquiry and people will generally believe the claim even if suspicious. All you have to…

Well if you were caught squatting down, with your hand literally in the wheel well of the car, again, that makes it pretty hard to argue you dropped something there. That's what we're talking about here.

Your hand is in the wheel well for a fraction of a second, just enough for a magnet to stick. You can still say "oh I was just picking up my air tag" and it'll be fairly reasonable. I'd buy it if it were done so you didn't look like you were fiddling with the car too long.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#288

Post by [deleted] »

kemayo wrote: post #86

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…

[deleted]

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#289

Post by UncleEntity »

kuon wrote: post #243
kemayo wrote: post #86

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…

I am wondering: - Would a GPS tracker placed at this position be able to catch the GPS signal? If I understand it correctly, an airtag communicate via bluetooth and would get the location from a phone in range? - An airtag do not require a SIM card. Are they easily traceable or is it hard to get to the owner?

> An airtag do not require a SIM card. Are they easily traceable or is it hard to get to the owner?

I turned my laptop into a functional airtag one bored day. Not sure how to get the data from apple with a Mac because it requires a bit of hackery due to them not having a public API but it can be done using their email app IIRC.

They store the encrypted location data on their servers so without the private key nobody can read it which also means nobody can determine who owns the tracker — I’d imagine they could use access logs or something to figure out who’s been reading the public key which the tracker broadcasts.

TFA could have not thrown the airtag away, read the serial number off it and used that as a “clue” methinks.

I actually want to get an esp-32 and turn that into a airtag but I’m lazy and would also need to buy a Mac so…though I’m not too lazy to code up a little daemon which will set off the beeper on every airtag in range once I get ahold of one.

Re: Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar

#290

Post by ralfd »

jjallen wrote: post #238
kemayo wrote: post #86

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…

Trivially possible? I wouldn’t know how to use or where to buy a GPS tracker. I’m sure it’s not super hard. But not as easy as an airtag. But now anyone with an iPhone can buy a $25 device and track anyone. I would guess that Airtags are also smaller than gps trackers.

> where to buy a GPS tracker.

Have you heard about amazon.com? There are multiple around $20 devices there.

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