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

nytimes.com

251–260 of 322 posts

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

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All your proposals ignore the fact that someone with electronic design skills can whip up a GPS tracker that is outside of this system. You would have to regulate this at the integrated circuit supplier level. Oops, China; good luck. Note that a tracking device does not have to transmit any information in real time. Suppose someone wants to find out where you live. If they know that they will run into you again somew…

I totally acknowledge that. They're not designed to stop electronic stalking at all costs; I can't really find a way to do that without extremely authoritarian measures. I don't even think you have to go to China. Any sufficiently motivated person can strap a GPS hat on a Raspberry Pi and make their own tracker, or do the same out of pedestrian electronic parts. My goal is merely to try to drastically cut down on the…

I suspect that the market will be flooded with this stuff in a couple of years, in a way that is impossible to regulate.

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

#252
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 creep…

Neurotic people are neurotic, they just use whatever tools are available to them. I can locate my daughter, my son, my wife, and even my own mother if I want to. I don't stalk them, ask questions about where they are going or where they have been, etc. But if I need a little peace of mind, I know where my loved ones are. We use the location & communication tools with respect, just like anything else.

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All your proposals ignore the fact that someone with electronic design skills can whip up a GPS tracker that is outside of this system. You would have to regulate this at the integrated circuit supplier level. Oops, China; good luck. Note that a tracking device does not have to transmit any information in real time. Suppose someone wants to find out where you live. If they know that they will run into you again somew…

I totally acknowledge that. They're not designed to stop electronic stalking at all costs; I can't really find a way to do that without extremely authoritarian measures. I don't even think you have to go to China. Any sufficiently motivated person can strap a GPS hat on a Raspberry Pi and make their own tracker, or do the same out of pedestrian electronic parts. My goal is merely to try to drastically cut down on the…

> They're not designed to stop electronic stalking at all costs; I can't really find a way to do that without extremely authoritarian measures.

It boils down to the age old question about why make regulations that only ever effect people who are law abiding to begin with. Which isn't an argument against all regulation, but more of a question about what regulation actually hits the desired goal.

Right now any actually nefarious stalker will just get the $25 GPS tracker, put a decent battery on it, and stick it to the bottom of the car. They're not going to use an AirTag that is easily traced back to them and stands a good chance of notifying their target of the tracking. The kinds of stalkers who use AirTags are the low effort losers.

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

#254
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…

> I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy.

What does this even mean?? Your partner commented on it??

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

#255
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Being held accountable, and knowing you are being held accountable, could likely stem some amount of bad behavior from the start, and at the very least it makes bad behavior harder to conceal.

It could also amusingly have people asking “why didn’t you check where I was” heh.

Already there. I've said that to my wife before when she asks where I'm at. "You could have just, you know, looked..."

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

#256
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…

Facebook Messenger implements this as "send location" which lets the other party track you for the next hour. I've found this useful without being creepy. I can share my location contextually, like if I'm picking someone up or meeting them somewhere.

I've used this in whatsapp so much. You can set it to 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours. Great way to meet up with someone, for Carnival me and some friends used to share our location in a group chat, so we could find each other if we wanted to, without the risk of accidentally forgetting to remove the location sharing, and having to constantly check our phones to respond to messages of people asking where we are.

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

#257
post #115

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…

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.

"Sense" does this, although some people have problems with the training. https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B08N5GWZWQ

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

#258

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?

Sense just guesses everything wrong. I can strongly recommend Emporia energy, which has per circuit monitors.

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

#259
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…

I didn't think she was filling for divorce. I was feeling insecure about being between jobs.

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

#260
post #222
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do they see their texts calls emails etc? Surely that’s illegal.

Children do not have any legal right to privacy. Especially not when the parents are paying for the cell phone and service.

> Children do not have any legal right to privacy.

Sadly, neither do most people.

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