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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

#81

Post by dougmwne »

Airtags are such a mess. My partner has one on his keys. First it would just notify me when he left his phone in the car. No way to permanently dismiss that notification. Hmm. Then it started notifying me all the time whether he has his phone or not. I have a near constant notification that I can only "ignore" for 24 hours. Then it started beeping at random times like in a theatre.

I would gladly agree to a waver so that I stopped getting those stupid notifications. I have no stalking concerns for myself. I'm at home almost all day and that is a secret to no one.

These things are probably going in the trash soon.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#82

Post by kentonv »

Reminds me of how Google keeps giving me security alerts saying that an unverified developer has access to my account. It highlights a particular Google Apps Script which I've granted access, and strongly encourages me to revoke it, because Google just doesn't know who this person is.

The person is me. I wrote the script. I granted my own account access to my own account. The account owning the script, and the account it has access to, are one and the same Google account. Yet still, constant alerts.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#83

Post by fingerlocks »

dougmwne wrote: post #81

Airtags are such a mess. My partner has one on his keys. First it would just notify me when he left his phone in the car. No way to permanently dismiss that notification. Hmm. Then it started notifying me all the time whether he has his phone or not. I have a near constant notification that I can only "ignore" for 24 hours. Then it started beeping at random times like in a theatre. I would gladly agree to a waver so…

That’s odd. My partner and I have two each and never have that experience. Like not at all. I wonder if the batteries are dying or the product is defective?

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#84

Post by alsodumb »

twawaaay wrote: post #52

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 tha…

One can obviously find hundreds of tracking tools on Amazon, but all of them need at least a simcard or equivalent to connect to the internet and share the location back. One has to pay for such a network.

The beauty of AirTags is that it banks on the vast network of apple devices to localize and share the location. For 20$ one time payment to buy AirTag you have permanently free tracking capability and that is definitely Apples headache.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#85

Post by nerdjon »

Is it just me or does the author not really understand what a family iCloud is?

It's not merging accounts as they seem to think it is. I don't gain access to my partners data just because we are on a family plan. Really the only "issue" we have is the credit card has to be the same but that's such a small issue to resolve since we have a shared credit card for shared expenses.

I don't really see the issue with going the route of just setting up a family link between your separate accounts if you have a dog together. Honestly that feels like more of a commitment...

Regardless of that for a moment. I think its better that the only way you can "share" a AirTag is through family. I can't really think of a reason that this would be an issue with friends that can't be easily solved by the 24 hour notice (or worst case needing to do that for a few days if you are doing a trip together or something).

Adding the ability to permanently do this otherwise I would worry could either be accidentally enabled or have a strong risk for abuse.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#86

Post by jrmg »

nerdjon wrote: post #85

Is it just me or does the author not really understand what a family iCloud is? It's not merging accounts as they seem to think it is. I don't gain access to my partners data just because we are on a family plan. Really the only "issue" we have is the credit card has to be the same but that's such a small issue to resolve since we have a shared credit card for shared expenses. I don't really see the issue with going…

There are loads of comments here from people that don’t realize that you actually can turn off notifications for AirTags that belong to family members you’ve linked your iCloud account to. It’s mentioned in one sentence at the end of the article.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#87

Post by nkantar »

I recently bought a few AirTags to track our vehicles—two bicycles, a motorcycle, and a car—and have been fairly disappointed.

The inability to pair to a family plan (or even just multiple individual accounts) makes it useless for anything we share, like the aforementioned car. Ditto for our pets, which would be at least somewhat appealing if that weren’t an issue.

I’ve put them on the vehicles we don’t share, and have been mostly amused when I ride somewhere and walk away from the bike. I suppose it’s good I haven’t really tested it any more than that.

I’d order quite a few more if we could share them, but as it is I’ll even replace the ones we have in use if I happen across an alternative that fits the bill.

I also removed the speakers[0] to make them slightly harder to pinpoint in case of actual theft.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-CGheQ53M

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#88

Post by cr3ative »

lsaferite wrote: post #34
cr3ative wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a little unfair. The problem is more that families sharing airtags don't have a good option to trust eachothers tags.

I think families _do_ have an option and it's listed in the article. The author just didn't want to take that route as it's more merging of accounts than they are comfortable with. I'd frame it more like Apple doesn't support the idea of shared resources except in a family account setting. A good example could be roommates living in a house and sharing a dog. A family account makes no sense here and the systems in pl…

Sadly, they do not. I've got the full Family Sharing thing going with Apple, Airtags are notably absent from it.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#89

Post by nerdjon »

jrmg wrote: post #86
nerdjon wrote: post #85

Is it just me or does the author not really understand what a family iCloud is? It's not merging accounts as they seem to think it is. I don't gain access to my partners data just because we are on a family plan. Really the only "issue" we have is the credit card has to be the same but that's such a small issue to resolve since we have a shared credit card for shared expenses. I don't really see the issue with going…

There are loads of comments here from people that don’t realize that you actually can turn off notifications for AirTags that belong to family members you’ve linked your iCloud account to. It’s mentioned in one sentence at the end of the article.

I am referring to this line in the article:

> We currently have separate accounts, though, and aren’t interested in fully merging our clouds.

It seems like they are making out a Family iCloud to be a much bigger thing than it actually is.

Re: Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me

#90

Post by kube-system »

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.

The last and only time I actually had to use my Tile, it didn’t even work in a frickin’ major international airport.

I think it’s funny how people gripe about AirTags and how they have stalking notifications. This was never an issue with Tile because you couldn’t stalk someone with it if you wanted to. It is only an “issue” with AirTags because they actually work.

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