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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

#281

Post by crhulls »

thedougd wrote: post #264
crhulls wrote: post #236

I'm the CEO of Life360, Tile's parent company. I chimed in on another comment but adding to the conversation directly here. I'm biased, but I am surprised how little pushback this is getting as AirTags explicitly are NOT meant to deter theft - to combat stalking (which is exceedingly rare) Apple notifies you if a tag you do not own is near you. That goes for thieves - they will be told an AirTag is nearby. At Tile we…

The Tile app constantly nags me in ugly ways to give it always on location permissions. How is that data used beyond helping people find their items?

We need that for background scanning; Apple just cheats and does the same without really asking. We have never sold Tile user data. We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm, but we exited the business as it seemed to cause confusion and was a very small part of our revenue

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

#282

Post by thedougd »

crhulls wrote: post #281
thedougd wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tile app constantly nags me in ugly ways to give it always on location permissions. How is that data used beyond helping people find their items?

We need that for background scanning; Apple just cheats and does the same without really asking. We have never sold Tile user data. We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm, but we exited the business as it seemed to cause confusion and was a very small part of our revenue

Thank you for your response. Please just let me say no once and for all. An occasional app banner is fine, but the system notifications is a step too far. That pushiness is what gave me the impression the location permission is more valuable to Tile than it is to me.

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

#283

Post by blep_ »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #242
martinjacobd wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the experience broken for anybody? I've been on group chats with my wife and parents (all iPhoners) for years and it's totally fine. I recently got a Pixel and now even the stupid emotes display properly (though it was easy to know what they meant before). I had an iphone forever ago (when my parents were paying for it), and I don't recall the experience of group chats being notably better or worse. It's more…

Have you never sent a video?

People have different usage patterns. I don't think I've ever sent or received a video.

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

#284

Post by [deleted] »

firmnoodle wrote: post #144
version_five wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that stupidity aside, how are AirTags actually supposed to help, even if we all had an iPhone and were happy to live under apple's benevolent rule? Most cars have a gps tracker now anyway. Mine was stolen last year, during the night. I was told it would have been put into a shipping container within an hour, where it wouldn't be accessible to radio waves anyway. Maybe they work for casual joyriding. At least wher…

AirTags will report their last known location. This is very likely to be the point it was driven into a container. If the container wasn't moved or loaded onto a ship yet it could be found. Additionally, while containers do a really good job and of blocking RF, they aren't perfect and they only need to get a little Bluetooth to a phone nearby. So even an iPhone on a crane operator could expose the stolen car's locati…

[deleted]

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

#285

Post by sp332 »

Aeolun wrote: post #230
alfalfasprout wrote: post #139

I gave up on Airtags. Under the guise of "protecting against stalking" Apple has removed all of its useful functionality. For starters, any family that shares keys can forget about using airtags. You'll get spammed with alerts about an airtag following you and even if you mute them (for 1 day max) you can't use the airtag to find the keys. This also happens if the person next to you has an airtag and is riding in the…

Why would Apple alert you to an airtag following you? Is this like the stupid Beats headphone messages I randomly get in the train?

In case a stalker is using one to track you.

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

#286

Post by Tyr42 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #174
7speter wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing about the mayor and NYPD telling everyone who watches or listens to the news to buy a 30 dollar gps patch that someone can put under some car carpeting anywhere in said car should be enough to discourage most car thieves with 2 or more active brain cells, but hey, I'm an idealist.

On Amazon I see them as low as 5 for $13 {GPS tracking tags. No need to buy Apple}

Yeah I investigated a few. The ones I checked were Bluetooth and used your phones GPS to mark their location.

So like, if you left your keys somewhere, you'd know where they were when you walked away, but not where they are afterwards.

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

#287

Post by skzv »

thedougd wrote: post #282
crhulls wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need that for background scanning; Apple just cheats and does the same without really asking. We have never sold Tile user data. We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm, but we exited the business as it seemed to cause confusion and was a very small part of our revenue

Thank you for your response. Please just let me say no once and for all. An occasional app banner is fine, but the system notifications is a step too far. That pushiness is what gave me the impression the location permission is more valuable to Tile than it is to me.

The system wouldn't work without location permission.

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

#289

Post by hot_gril »

surgical_fire wrote: post #108
acchow wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Again... this level of ignorance and short-sightedness is surprising coming from someone in such a position of authority He was making a joke, playing into the Android vs iPhone eternal war. But as someone who spent years on iPhone, then switched fully to Android for 5 devices across 4 years, and now back to iPhone..... I actually think the ignorance is the other way (Android users who have never tried iPhone as th…

> But as someone who spent years on iPhone, then switched fully to Android for 5 devices across 4 years Perhaps you don't know how to pick phones? My last Android device lasted 4 years (in fact it is still going strong after I installed DivestOS, became my backup phone), and my new device will probably last a long time too. Each for a fraction of the price charged by Apple.

> Perhaps you don't know how to pick phones

That's part of the problem with Android...

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

#290

Post by Gigachad »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #158

I wanted to try to understand more context behind the "'Why would anyone have one [an Android phone]?' Mayor Adams responded." quote. Here is the relevant video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuw72THyXsQ&t=949s So, I get that he's making a joke, but given that everyone just laughs and there is no follow up, it's clear to me it's one of those "The reason this joke is funny is because I actually think it's true" joke…

What do you want him to tell you? AirTags do not work with Android. Is that much better than cracking a joke? He is giving some general advice that is useful to most people. Should he refrain from giving some helpful advice unless it works universally for everyone?
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