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

nytimes.com

171–180 of 322 posts

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

#171
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…

> Checking in constantly. Wondering and/or quizzing their child

This behavior is rampant in my peer group. Most of my friends/neighbors are constantly monitoring their teen age children's location, reading their recent calls, texts, and emails, looking at internet usage logs, etc. One of my neighbors even calls her daughter every time she sees she's driving over the speed limit and yells at her. It all seems so creepy to me, and I give my kid way more privacy than that, but it looks like I'm in the minority of parents.

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

#173

Look, I usually try to be charitable. However, this article offered no new insight on Apple Airtags. If you don't want to waste your time, allow me to summarize: Woman puts Airtags in a car. Her husband isn't able to find them, even using Apple's "anti-stalk" features. Ergo, Apple needs to do more. I ask - what new insight did this article offer on Airtags? I don't think anyone can conclude either way on the effectiv…

I ask - what new insight did this article offer on Airtags?

Ask the author: https://mobile.twitter.com/kashhill

Let us know what she says.

The author also seems to be somewhat deceptive

Let us know what she has to say about that, too.

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

#174
post #58
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…

The road to authoritarian technology is paved with convenience

Most technology is a double-edged sword. Front-facing cameras on phone are immensely useful for video calls and impromptu portraits, but in event of software compromise, can disclose a lot of info. Cell networks revolutionized communication and network availability, but make all other tech omnipresent and allow rough tracking of users by signal strength.

The existence of technologies are fine, but we need to set strong social norms, laws (and resilient enforcing institutions), and smart design limitations to protect against abuse.

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

#175
post #77

My wife and I have Google maps location sharing turned on all the time. It's not stepping because we agreed to it. Last night I got home from a motorcycle ride and the garage door opened as I pulled up because my wife knew I was coming home from a movie and saw I was almost home.

Can anyone share how they do this self-hosted? I'd guess a custom protocol would be worse battery-wise, but I would be able to plug in while in the car.

I use NextTracks/OwnTracks and a self-hosted MQTT server. It's great!

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

#176

Look, I usually try to be charitable. However, this article offered no new insight on Apple Airtags. If you don't want to waste your time, allow me to summarize: Woman puts Airtags in a car. Her husband isn't able to find them, even using Apple's "anti-stalk" features. Ergo, Apple needs to do more. I ask - what new insight did this article offer on Airtags? I don't think anyone can conclude either way on the effectiv…

> should Apple be doing these measures at all? Apple no, but law makers should require a licence to use those. This is not a tech that anybody should be able to use on a whim. Too much potential for abuses. Not to mention the more there are, the bigger the cake for a nation that want to get control of the biggest offline spying network of all time. Somebody is going to crack that thing sooner or later. There will be…

What until you hear about the tracking device that everyone has in their pockets, used by cellular companies, ad companies, and the government!

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

#177

Look, I usually try to be charitable. However, this article offered no new insight on Apple Airtags. If you don't want to waste your time, allow me to summarize: Woman puts Airtags in a car. Her husband isn't able to find them, even using Apple's "anti-stalk" features. Ergo, Apple needs to do more. I ask - what new insight did this article offer on Airtags? I don't think anyone can conclude either way on the effectiv…

I ask - what new insight did this article offer on Airtags? Ask the author: https://mobile.twitter.com/kashhill Let us know what she says. The author also seems to be somewhat deceptive Let us know what she has to say about that, too.

I don't have twitter and I don't think twitter is a good platform for discussion.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us How would you know?

We get I think something on the order of 10,000 customer service tickets a week, and we regularly get subpoenas. We've heard almost every story you can think of. Although we are getting inquiries with this recent press, in terms of actual reports of stalking via our devices it is essentially zero. AirTags has a much broader network than us as of now. Part of why we bought Tile is because we can expand their network.…

Thanks for the response. Thinking this through a bit more from a use case perspective:

1. If I was stalked by someone using your product, would I contact your customer support?

2. If I was doing the stalking, would I contact your customer support?

Pretty sure the answer would be no in both cases. In 1), I wouldn't necessarily even know it is your product. In 2), what am I going to say to customer support? "I'm trying to stalk my husband and your product isn't working well."?

Subpoenas might reveal a percentage of stalking activities, but if the OPs post is true, then I don't even think police would be involved here.

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

#179
post #122
post #29

I often peek at my wife when she's coming home from work via our car's app. She knows I do this. (When my kids are with me they love watching the car move on the map. I hope she peeks at me when she's with the kids and I have the car.) What made it funny one time was when I was between jobs, and she went to her gynecologist after work. Even though she told me, I forgot, and the map only showed that there was a divorc…

> Even though she told me, I forgot, and the map only showed that there was a divorce lawyer's office in the parking lot. I really needed a hug when she walked in the door. A fine example of why pervasive tracking is terrible for relationships. I'm assuming based on your tone that you were calm and collected and didn't fly off the handle with accusations when she got home. But I think there are many people who would…

> A fine example of why pervasive tracking is terrible for relationships.

Seems like an example of a relationship that’s lacking a good connection and understanding, if someone thinks the other is going to swing by to get a divorce. Tracking didn’t cause that, and lack of tracking wouldn’t fix it.

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

#180
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…

> The truth is that most people aren’t immune to being on either end of a situation like this

Hard disagree here - most people are not going to go all obsessive on their spouses, kids, etc.

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