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NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

arstechnica.com

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Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#3

Post by politelemon »

This article throws up many flags for me, not necessarily red, but of a worrying color.

It first celebrates surveillance devices as a net positive and hand-waves away its problems.

But most importantly, it is awfully shortsighted to allow a single company to entrench itself further into societal transactions. However, hearing it is inconvenient, so I am often dismissed for saying so.

> They're made by Apple, which means they're very platform-agnostic.

You mean platform-specific.

> "Why would anyone have one [an Android phone]?" Mayor Adams responded.

Again... this level of ignorance and short-sightedness is surprising coming from someone in such a position of authority, and seems to ignore the realities of the world. Perhaps Mayor Adams spends too much time on HN?

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#5

Post by Logans_Run »

From TFA

Mayor Adams was asked during the press conference if AirTags work with Android (they don't).

"Why would anyone have one [an Android phone]?" Mayor Adams responded.

Oh and given that this in New York we're talking about here, the vigilante mob are gonna go wild for this, especially after Citizen worked out so well ....

But by last month, Frame was enthusiastically backing the idea of manhunts, according to screenshots of internal company communications seen by NBC News and first reported by Motherboard [1]

[1] "Inside Citizen: The public safety app pushing surveillance boundaries" https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/citizen-public-safety...

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#6

Post by platevoltage »

I use Airtags for this purpose with my car and my bicycle, but they're not designed for this purpose. You can pull the speaker coil out of them fairly easily, but they will still notify the thief that they're being tracked if they have an iPhone on them. Not ideal, but it beats having a huge epidemic of stalking.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#8

Post by tohnjitor »

politelemon wrote: post #3

This article throws up many flags for me, not necessarily red, but of a worrying color. It first celebrates surveillance devices as a net positive and hand-waves away its problems. But most importantly, it is awfully shortsighted to allow a single company to entrench itself further into societal transactions. However, hearing it is inconvenient, so I am often dismissed for saying so. > They're made by Apple, which me…

You must not be familiar with American politicians.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#9

Post by dinkblam »

i am unsure how AirTags can be recommended by anyone in any situation to prevent theft.

their "anti-tracking" features make them completely useless in any situation where theft is involved (or theft happens after loosing the item). the thief is alerted to their presence automatically and can disable them quickly. perfect for thieves!

AirTags can only be used for misplaced items, any utility for situations involving theft is completely negated by their "anti tracking" features.

another case where giving a 0.01% case too much attention makes the normal 99.99% use case completely impossible..

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