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I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

nytimes.com

111–120 of 322 posts

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#111
post #89

> I opened an app linked to the most precise tracker in my arsenal, the $30 LandAirSea device. To activate it costs extra, because it needs a cellular plan to ping global positioning satellites. I feel like someone who writes about privacy and surveillance should at least know how GPS works... nothing "pings" a GPS satellite here. GPS signals are constantly being broadcast to the ground for anyone to receive. The cel…

does this distinction matter at all, in any way to the point they were trying to get across?

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#112
post #32

My comment isn’t specific to AirTags, but there’s a much larger conversation that needs to be had about this gray area of stalking capabilities that are now built into many mainstream products. Here’s a pattern I’ve seen play out more than once among friends and family - they share their location willingly and for seemingly benign reasons. It’s helpful to know when you’ll be getting home so I can start dinner! Just i…

Yeah. I took my partners dog for the afternoon. It has an airtag (not an official supported use). I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy. When I worked at a power monitoring startup (we monitored home power use, by individual circuit) this passive monitoring came up. And our CEO mentioned to his wife that she was home early.. "how did you know?" He saw the garage doo…

[deleted]

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#113
post #6

The only clear conclusion to be drawn from this is - never marry the author of this piece!

This is extremely uncharitable. It was buried, but the husband consented to this.

> “You can do it,” [The author's husband] said. “But it’ll be boring. We’re in a pandemic. I never go anywhere.”

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#114
post #76
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that she was to tired to take a baby to the hospital, but not to follow husband every step is what concerns me.

baby-hospital visits are brutal. It's about 8 hours of waiting (usually in the middle of the night) with a screaming child while staff ignores you and then finally says there isn't a problem. Recently during a bout of covid my son's tongue was blue and he couldn't figure out what was up. My wife wanted to the go to ER, the doctor said to go to the ER. I said, "no, there's another explanation for this and nobody is lo…

> baby-hospital visits are brutal. It's about 8 hours of waiting (usually in the middle of the night) with a screaming child while staff ignores you and then finally says there isn't a problem.

Add to that that depending on your health-care plan, it could cost you thousands of dollars!

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#115
post #32

My comment isn’t specific to AirTags, but there’s a much larger conversation that needs to be had about this gray area of stalking capabilities that are now built into many mainstream products. Here’s a pattern I’ve seen play out more than once among friends and family - they share their location willingly and for seemingly benign reasons. It’s helpful to know when you’ll be getting home so I can start dinner! Just i…

Yeah. I took my partners dog for the afternoon. It has an airtag (not an official supported use). I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy. When I worked at a power monitoring startup (we monitored home power use, by individual circuit) this passive monitoring came up. And our CEO mentioned to his wife that she was home early.. "how did you know?" He saw the garage doo…

Someone told me that by examining smart meter data by amount, time and duration different appliances could be identified. He was rather surprised himself by the level of detail.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I took my partners dog for the afternoon. It has an airtag (not an official supported use). I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy. When I worked at a power monitoring startup (we monitored home power use, by individual circuit) this passive monitoring came up. And our CEO mentioned to his wife that she was home early.. "how did you know?" He saw the garage doo…

Care to share the competitors in the power monitoring space? I could really use a solution to this because my home electric bill is crazy high. We moved in to a new house about eight months ago and this electric bill is like 30% higher than my previous home. Not just the raw total of the bill - my consumption is higher in this house. I know of sense.com but perhaps there are others?

I've used The Energy Detective for a long time, but it is challenging to install the hardware in your breaker box.

For an easier approach, there are a bunch of wifi plugs that can report energy usage: https://www.androidcentral.com/which-smart-plugs-are-best-mo...

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean for personal use, airtags seem all right. But it's the ones that don't come with a warning that they're around that worry me. I mean if you're paranoid, I'm sure there's detectors that can find bluetooth signals and whichever other technologies they use (I'm fairly sure GPS is passive, that is, they only need to receive satellite signals, not send anything).

Download the nRFConnect app and you'll probably be amazed at the number of BLE devices that are around you all the time. Anecdote: I used to work for a company that did a lot of wireless wearable stuff and early on in COVID lockdown I had a Linux tool: bluetoothctl, running while I was testing some code down in the basement of my house. The first indication I had that my wife was home was the appearance of a Fitbit d…

Wow, I was indeed amazed. I live in an apartment building, and I could immediately see more than a hundred devices! The list has everything: from headphones and smart watches to light bulbs and TVs.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#118
post #88

Hi All, I'm the cofounder and CEO of Life360, which is the relatively new owner of Tile. Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us, but we are in the process expanding the finding network via our 35 million+ active user base (will require opt-in consent) and we also do offer a location device for kids and pets (Jiobit) that has its own cell connection which is actually meant for finding people in real-time. We hav…

Hello, Tile owner here! I have a Tile on my house keys and my wallet, which are the two devices I misplace the most often. They've saved me countless times, primarily helping me find them when I leave them in my car, or put them someone in my house that they aren't supposed to be.

I'm most excited for the upcoming UWB tracker, and especially for the work that Google and Tile are apparently doing to ensure devices with UWB support are all compatible. I was wondering if you could give a quick update on the status of UWB tracking on Android? As far as I know, there's only two devices that support it (Samsung's S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra), but it hasn't been confirmed whether Tile's UWB tracker is compatible. As mentioned in the article, BLE tracking isn't as accurate as UWB, so I assume that UWB support would be necessary for most of these tracking concerns to materialize with Tile's trackers.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#119
post #32

My comment isn’t specific to AirTags, but there’s a much larger conversation that needs to be had about this gray area of stalking capabilities that are now built into many mainstream products. Here’s a pattern I’ve seen play out more than once among friends and family - they share their location willingly and for seemingly benign reasons. It’s helpful to know when you’ll be getting home so I can start dinner! Just i…

Yeah. I took my partners dog for the afternoon. It has an airtag (not an official supported use). I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy. When I worked at a power monitoring startup (we monitored home power use, by individual circuit) this passive monitoring came up. And our CEO mentioned to his wife that she was home early.. "how did you know?" He saw the garage doo…

One great use case of passive monitoring is detecting water leaks, especially for vacation homes.

> It has an airtag (not an official supported use)

I'm surprised. That sounds like a great use for it, especially for a larger breed that runs fast.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#120
post #88

Hi All, I'm the cofounder and CEO of Life360, which is the relatively new owner of Tile. Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us, but we are in the process expanding the finding network via our 35 million+ active user base (will require opt-in consent) and we also do offer a location device for kids and pets (Jiobit) that has its own cell connection which is actually meant for finding people in real-time. We hav…

It's interesting that you decided to appear here in an effort to position Life360 as a more-private alternative to Apple solutions.

"We see data as an important part of our business model that allows us to keep the core Life360 services free for the majority of our users, including features that have improved driver safety and saved numerous lives." — You

"In 2020, the company made $16 million—nearly 20 percent of its revenue that year—from selling location data, plus an additional $6 million from its partnership with Arity." — The Markup

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-...

This is the part where you respond how you're sharing surveillance data to the CDC for people's own good, and that you've stopped selling "precise location data".

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