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Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

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Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#261

Post by throwaway48375 »

dschuessler wrote: post #2

I wonder if this modification could at least be made harder by having some kind of heartbeat. Build in a microphone whose sole purpose is to receive inaudible, high frequency impulses (maybe a hash signal?) from the speaker every once in a while. If the signal does not arrive in time, the AirTag shuts off. Of course, no measure can beat physical access to the device but you could at least make the tampering about as…

Couldn't you just remove the speaker and microphone then wire the speaker output to the microphone input?

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#262

Post by throwaway48375 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #9
causi wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be hard to make a silent container for an airtag that'd let the audible signal reach the mic but not the alarm. Personally I think they'll eventually have to link every Airtag to a real identity so anyone detecting one knows who it really belongs to.

> have to link every Airtag to a real identity Isn't it already linked to your Apple account? Take the AirTag to the cops, they ask Apple who it belongs to.

No post body was provided.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#263

Post by diebeforei485 »

uoaei wrote: post #138
jen20 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I met a UT campus police officer who refuses to live in or bring his family to ATX because of the risks and de facto lawlessness. I live in Downtown Austin, and this kind of picture simply does not fit with my day-to-day experience of Austin.

If you ask a lifeguard what they fear, they'll say drowning. Cops are not objective sources of reality, neither is anyone else. More than a few grains of salt need to be taken when cops say stuff because they're steeped in a very different life than the average citizen.

By this token, it's also worth noting that the people who are blaring the alarm horns over AirTags are also people who are steeped in a very different life than the average citizen. Notably, Eva Galperin of EFF who works on investigating stalking-related issues. So, more than a few grains of salt need to be taken when hearing what they say.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#264

Post by chrisco255 »

holistio wrote: post #165
thebean11 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ATX has the security measures of a third-world country That's a pretty dramatic way to describe police not wanting to spend resources to get your $200 headphones back..

What's the threshold over which you believe crime is no longer okay? AirPods Max? Only $549. A MacBook? Only $2000. A car? Only $20000. Does someone have to burn my house down for it to be worthwhile for the police?

There is a separate category for theft called grand theft, which is typically more heavily pursued. The opposite is petty theft.

However, the big problem with spending resources to investigate a theft is that the vast majority of the time there will be no leads, and no way to pursue them.

My laptop was stolen out of my truck, window smashed and backpack gone. Unless I had video evidence or witness testimony to go off of.

There are only so many detectives and forensics experts and only so much time and they typically have multiple cases going on at a time.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#265

Post by shoxidizer »

dfsegoat wrote: post #176
r00fus wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You expect Apple do make an open protocol? This is the role of a government to mandate standards for their jurisdictions. Of course, regulation is a bad word for a good number of the electorate so this will never happen.

Genuinely curious: What are other examples where specific protocols (open or not) are mandated by regulation ?

Cars are required to have an OBD-II port.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#266

Post by ok_dad »

xoa wrote: post #24
post_break wrote: post #4

Taping them together tightly silences it. Airtags have to be the most nerfed product I've bought. Day one, they were fantastic. Then they lowered the beeping and rogue alerts to a threshold my wife gets them from my keys or wallet all the time. Then they just beep randomly. I regret buying them to be honest. Tile never really got harped on for stalking. The samsung trackers work just as well as Apple and don't have a…

I haven't experienced the same issues you describe in terms of random beeping or the like. But I do think one of the most curious and irritating missing pieces from AirTags is no sort of tie-in with Family Sharing or some sort of contacts whitelist. I saw one thing saying that was about privacy but that makes zero sense because Apple doesn't do the same thing elsewhere in "Find My" for people or devices. While it's c…

Even if you could pair the same airtag on two accounts, that would be useful! I don't care if I can directly share things from Find My, but if my wife could add my cat's airtag to her phone also, that would be nice. Seems like a very important feature to have, people have been complaining for almost a year about it, too!

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#267

Post by [deleted] »

myself248 wrote: post #147
post_break wrote: post #4

Taping them together tightly silences it. Airtags have to be the most nerfed product I've bought. Day one, they were fantastic. Then they lowered the beeping and rogue alerts to a threshold my wife gets them from my keys or wallet all the time. Then they just beep randomly. I regret buying them to be honest. Tile never really got harped on for stalking. The samsung trackers work just as well as Apple and don't have a…

Tile didn't work well enough for stalking. I bought some Tiles and Trackrs and gave them to friends who agreed to help me test their usefulness, pretending that they had "stolen" these items from me. I would see if I could locate them a few days later when I "noticed them missing". I got one ping from a Tile once when the friend had apparently stopped for gas, but none from their house. And zero at all from the Track…

[deleted]

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#268

Post by butwhywhyoh »

TameAntelope wrote: post #255
jkestner wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lot of assertions without citations in this thread. HN can do better. If you’ve never had something stolen before, let me flesh out your data point. The police almost never investigate theft of private property—if they do, it’s when there’s serial theft in an area. That’s anywhere in the US, in any year. They’re only there as a notary of sorts for your claim to the insurance company. It’d be cool if police used the s…

Once you take the emotional factor out of theft, it's basically solved by the concept of insurance. Just replace your things, and you should be mostly whole again.

Solved by insurance? We should normalize the idea of theft because some large entity will replace our goods whenever they are stolen? This seems like it sets up an incentive to steal, since "don't worry, it will be replaced for them by insurance anyways".

Not to mention the emotional factor isn't the only factor by far. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to have my car available to me on demand, rather than have to wait to make a claim with insurance and finding a replacement. Has nothing to do with my emotions.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#269

Post by [deleted] »

RIMR wrote: post #219
pkulak wrote: post #183

I've got a tag on my bike and it's pretty dumb that it starts beeping at the thief if it ever gets stolen. Why do we have to gimp everything to make it difficult to use them to break the law? Isn't enforcement of laws how we're supposed to make people not break the law?

The problem is that without the beep, these devices are no different than your standard GPS tracker that you could use to track someone without their consent. So it beeps so indemnify Apple from that use case. And for good reason. These devices are already getting popular with abusive spouses. It's worth planning for the worst case scenarios for these things, because they are real.

[deleted]

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#270

Post by blitzar »

quenix wrote: post #241
rolobio wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I was worried I would have a knock at my door from this. The AirTag will make it quite clear who owns it. But I expect someone familiar with returned items will say "Oh, someone forgot to remove their AirTag again. Throw it in the garbage." So hopefully no knocks at my door.

As far as I know there is no way to determine the owner of an AirTag.

A law enforcement request to apple should tell you everything you need to know and more about the owner of an airtag.
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