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‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#31

Post by vmception »

probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

Yes, normalizing has a lot of reverberations, a conspiracy charge couldn't be levied anymore because its a common combination of items.

Whereas before you could easily have your freedom curbed by having your prior thoughts known in combination with buying the hardware. Ive seen people beat conspiracy charges on appeal but their freedom was still undermined along the way.

Now having a bunch of airtags is benign.

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#32

Post by sodkmfkwegw »

conk wrote: post #23
probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

Quoted post unavailable.

What a dumb-ass comment. If we had normalized guns and everyone was carrying a gun everywhere, a few beers would likely result in many gunfights lol.

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#33

Post by conk »

dhosek wrote: post #22
aomix wrote: post #11

I found the beep on lost (in this case, "lost" but not in a malicious way) tags to be pretty quiet or just not distinctive. While taking care of a friends cat with an airtag in the collar I kept thinking I was hearing a car down the block or maybe my PC was making a strange sound. Even knowing about the behavior and expecting to hear a beep I didn't pick up on it for several days.

We have an AirTag in our dog's collar which is registered to my wife's AppleID¹ The first walk I took with the dog after she put it on the dog, I got a notification about an unidentified AirTag (which included her email address and I think phone number) following me. ⸻⸻⸻ 1. My single big complaint about AirTags is that they can't be shared between Apple IDs. Presumably that will be changed in a future software upgrad…

This is my complaint too. There needs to be a way to share airtags with family members so they can also located missing items and they don’t get spammed with alerts. Without this option it’s just creating alert fatigue and will make users discredit real alerts.

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#34

Post by boffinism »

conk wrote: post #23
probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

Quoted post unavailable.

The point is that one beer to many turns a would-be stalker weirdo into a stalker weirdo if they already have the kit to hand.

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#36

Post by vmception »

Schiendelman wrote: post #4

This is excellent news; Apple designed these to be difficult to use to stalk someone, and those features are working. Hopefully this makes enough noise that Tile and GPS trackers are forced to implement similar features.

Its not an ideal experience and I don't have the imagination to say what that is.

4 hours before notification if you have an iphone or the app on an android, which was lowered from the original plan

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#37

Post by pessimizer »

conk wrote: post #23
probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

Quoted post unavailable.

Stalkers are regular people. What did you think they were?

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#38

Post by alex_duf »

probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

Also it makes the justification of buying such a product much easier. "I need to track my backpack" is better accepted than "I need a GPS tracker to follow my ex partner".

I do believe Apple opened a can of worms they shouldn't have, and that it's going to cause great distress to many people.

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#39

Post by cptskippy »

dhosek wrote: post #22
aomix wrote: post #11

I found the beep on lost (in this case, "lost" but not in a malicious way) tags to be pretty quiet or just not distinctive. While taking care of a friends cat with an airtag in the collar I kept thinking I was hearing a car down the block or maybe my PC was making a strange sound. Even knowing about the behavior and expecting to hear a beep I didn't pick up on it for several days.

We have an AirTag in our dog's collar which is registered to my wife's AppleID¹ The first walk I took with the dog after she put it on the dog, I got a notification about an unidentified AirTag (which included her email address and I think phone number) following me. ⸻⸻⸻ 1. My single big complaint about AirTags is that they can't be shared between Apple IDs. Presumably that will be changed in a future software upgrad…

How far/long does the owner have to be away from the AirTag before it can be detected by others? I noticed my neighbor had an AirTag on his dog one day and so we tried to detect it with my Android Phone using the App and never could.

To the stalking concerns, if the AirTag doesn't think it's lost then it doesn't chirp. It also seems to remain undetectable to others. Does that mean someone could put an AirTag on someone and as long as they are close by it won't alert others?

Re: ‘I was just scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints

#40

Post by aserdf »

probably_wrong wrote: post #18

> “If you really are nefarious and evil and you really want to find someone, there are things that are much better than an AirTag” (...) While it's true that there are better ways to stalk people, I think an AirTag brings something to the table that wasn't there before: the normalization of having stalking hardware at hand. Buying a "stalker kit" requires me to think long and hard about stalking someone. I need to ma…

democratizing stalking since 2021™
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