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Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

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Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#51

Post by anonymouskimmer »

tomschlick wrote: post #25
bluetidepro wrote: post #13

> The problem is that the AirTag is registered to my partner’s device. That means that Apple doesn’t recognize my iPhone in connection with the AirTag, seeing the unknown tracker as a threat to my safety. > The notification provides an option to disable the AirTag, which would be helpful to stop an unwanted third-party from knowing your location. That feature renders the AirTag useless, though, so it would no longer…

The disable isn't a disable of notifications. It disables the airtag from reporting its status as an anti-stalking measure. So it wouldn't work for anyone.

So does this mean person A could reverse stalk person B (who has their airtagged Macbook on them, for instance). Use the disable function to disable the airtag on person B's Macbook once IOS pops up a potential stalking notification. And then freely steal the Macbook?

What's the distance and time required to get a stalking notification? I presume close enough that it would be hard to do on the street, but potentially of use in a place like a cafe or an airport screening line?

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#52

Post by twawaaay »

That's simple. Things like this happen when people act without principles. It is like patching software without taking one step back to understand the underlying issues.

The underlying issue with airtags is supposed to be that people can use them to track other people. Well, rather than try to take a step back and understand what the problem is, Apple decided to just jump in and start figuring out some heuristics that will prevent most of the tracking by sacrificing the least usability.

The result is the product becomes unusable while tracking issue isn't solved either.

IMO tracking issue isn't really Apple's problem. A person that wants to track another person has a huge number of tools at their disposal. Go to any large online shopping platform like amazon or aliexpress and you can find hundreds if not thousands tracking tools. Some much better than airtags (cheaper and not retroactively traceable by Apple). Tracking should be solved legally and by educating people that tracking people without their permission is illegal and they potentially can face criminal charges, regardless of the method they use to track another person.

Imagine car makers reacted to first car accidents by putting pillows around the cars rather than figuring out we need legal moves (road rules, drivers licenses, car safety standards, infrastructure to separate flows of traffic, etc.)

There is a class of items that need to be restricted or nerfed because they are either inherently dangerous or they are of not much use except for committing crime or similar.

But there are also things that are very useful AND at the same time can be used to commit crimes.

I am not even talking about guns. Think kitchen knives. Knives are useful. Yes, we can live without them but having good sharp knives at home enhances our lives and makes it much easier to make good food.

Notice, knife makers do not make kitchen knives so that they are dull. They do not make them so short that you can't reach another persons heart. Instead, we know what the knives are for and we know that what you can't do is murder another person with it. Or murder them in any other way, regardless of the tool used.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#53

Post by mattnewton »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #47
mattnewton wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched back to tile because of this and haven’t regretted it.

Tile simply doesn’t work for us in rural areas. There’s not even remotely the same device density as the iPhone.

Fair, but I’ve found I basically never use other people’s devices, just the last seen location to see where I left something. The only cases where there something was tracking movement was in the case where my wallet was stolen and they were smart enough to remove the credit-card shaped tile in it and bin it immediately in a different place; I imagine my much more conspicuous airtag on my partner’s keys would share the same fate.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#54

Post by fwlr »

lsaferite wrote: post #23
fwlr wrote: post #10

A “Trust this AirTag” option, perhaps requiring the AirTag’s owner’s device to be involved as well, could solve this issue.

Why would the AirTag owner need to be involved? If I say that I trust a specific AirTag then it shouldn't matter what the owner thinks.

No particular reason it should be necessary, it’s just a step that is very easy to do for most of the legitimate use cases and maybe a little harder to do for some of the nefarious use cases. Having that step adds some differential friction, a little behavioral nudge in the direction of ethical AirTag use.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#55

Post by justsomehnguy »

lsaferite wrote: post #23
fwlr wrote: post #10

A “Trust this AirTag” option, perhaps requiring the AirTag’s owner’s device to be involved as well, could solve this issue.

Why would the AirTag owner need to be involved? If I say that I trust a specific AirTag then it shouldn't matter what the owner thinks.

Because that way other people could know who is the owner of the tag.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#56

Post by pionar »

mgkimsal wrote: post #36
drewg123 wrote: post #11

Speaking of odd "Find My" notifications... Does this happen to anybody else: When I take a flight, I'll put my backpack with my M1 MBP into the overhead. Like clockwork, when I land, I get a notification that I left the laptop behind at the origin airport. This happens when I don't even touch the laptop inflight, so I could not have disabled BT or wifi. What metric is making Apple think the laptop was left behind?

I get notifications that my AirPods are 'left behind' at the gym when I'm driving home, even though... I'm wearing them in the car and the case is in my pocket. Yet... the one time I actually forgot the case in my gym locker, and got to the car... nothing. Happens sometimes when I leave the office too; half a mile from the office I get an alert that I've left my AirPods at the office even though - again - I'm wearing…

So many red flags there. Wearing airpods while driving, and then also holding your phone while driving?

People like you make me nervous when I drive.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#57

Post by bcherny »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #47
mattnewton wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched back to tile because of this and haven’t regretted it.

Tile simply doesn’t work for us in rural areas. There’s not even remotely the same device density as the iPhone.

Interesting to hear this, not having tried Tile myself. It does seem like Apple’s big competitive advantage (along with access to low level device APIs they don’t offer to developers).

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#58

Post by dml2135 »

jclardy wrote: post #48
bcherny wrote: post #6

I recently bought a bunch of AirTags for my family: for our keys, our bike, our luggage. Annoyingly, every AirTag needs to be linked to a single iPhone. Even when everyone belongs to the same Family. AirTags also make annoying sounds every time I grab my keys to go out. They’re still the best UX on the market, but I wish Apple would improve the UX just a bit more. Maybe their policy folks are worried about news stori…

This is super annoying for me, as I bought a tag for our shared mailbox key thinking we both could find it when needed, but only my devices can. It seems crazy to me that this still hasn't been implemented in over a year now - iCloud family plans exist, CloudKit sharing zones exist since last year (In public API form, so likely they existed internally for even longer.) Also the device ID's are already shared internal…

Why does it seem crazy to you?

Here's what likely happened -- they built the entire system from the ground-up based on a single-user because integrating with iCloud family wasn't part of the MVP.

By the time someone got around to asking about it, they realized that their data model was so thoroughly fucked it would take several weeks of risky migrations in order to add multi-user support.

So stakeholders are punting on it left and right. The things are selling, so is multi-user support really that important? It's an "edge case".

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#60

Post by justsomehnguy »

kybernetyk wrote: post #32

It's a shame you can't share one air tag between multiple people. Like: car keys. Why can't me and my wife have access to the one air tag attached to our family car's keys? Why is this something someone at Apple hadn't thought of?

I bet they did but it was a too big can of worms.

Did you forgot how everyone claimed what everyone would stalk everyone and hence this shit should be banned? Did you forgot that there were (and probably still are) people who tried to use AirTags to stalk?

Now everyone loves AirTags and A. can add more functionality which were deemed too controversial to include at the start.

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