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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

#391
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am convinced you are not reading the things you reply to. That person specifically noted and gave you a reference to how those 3rd party tags use Apple's own network.

> That person specifically noted and gave you a reference to how those 3rd party tags use Apple's own network. What is the clear reference? One person said they searched GPS tracker tags on Amazon and the other gave a link to Apple’s licensing program which in turn links to NDAs and contractual agreements as well a multi-step design and approval process. There seem to be some knock-offs claiming they work with Find M…

https://chipolo.net/en-us/products/category/chipolo-spot

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HQF72ZM/A/chipolo-card-sp...

I own one, and it works just like an airtag and appears in the find my app. It doesn't have precision feature but everything else works(like using the apple/iphone network to find it)

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

#392
> Adams, as the city did when announcing litigation against Kia and Hyundai on April 7, largely blamed the rise in car thefts on Kia and Hyundai, which he said are "leading the way" in stolen car brands.

Love this. NYC's response to crime: sue auto manufacturers rather than make the city safer.

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

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait till he finds out that police departments don't build their own cars, or sew their own uniforms.

What a silly comment. Those are assets purchased by the cops to enable them to provide the services they do to the public. On the other hand, we have a private for-profit company that is piggybacking off the cops vehicles in order to make profit for it's shareholders. That would never be allowed in any democratic country, but then neither would bribery/lobbying so [insert shrug emoji]

I especially hate all those private for-profit police scanner making companies like motorola that piggyback off the cops.

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

#394

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…

>put a ton of thought into this problem

question: have you put any thought into the fact that you cannot fine Anyone, since you're not the government, and have zero authority to do so? "fine" lol. all you can do, is ban people from using your service and attempt to bully them by blatantly lying.

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

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have updated all models to have either replaceable batteries or a 3-year life. Given how beaten up devices on things like keys get we are getting very good feedback on the 3 year models. We are also giving away free tiles to paid Life360 members, which is probably not as relevant to the hacker news crowd but we do have over 20% of US families using our service. We think tiles should be free with membership, includ…

So you claim 20% of US families, or about 25 million use your service. Your website is showing me "502 Bad Gateway" right now.

he, and his company, are blatantly lying. they are simple scammers - much like the emails you get about penis pills.

20% of US families haven't even heard of his service. heck, not even 2%, not even 2% of the families who work in tech. US-wide, Maybe 20% know what an airtag is.

go to walmart, ask anyone there if they've heard of.. well, I forgot what his service is called already. best leave it at that. something about a new cryptocoin I think it was.

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

#396
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm" I'm confused. Life360 was found selling precise user location data to third party data brokers[0]. It doesn't take a creative mind to see the harm (or even potential harm) caused here. I could never trust you or your company. [0] https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-... > A former X-Mode engineer said the raw location dat…

The entire premise of "found" is a bit nuts as we are a public company and disclosed this regularly and consistently, including how we used the data. The coverage we got in the MarkUp was the most unethical I have seen in my life with reporters literally cutting/pasting parts of quotes to make a point. We had a data platform for targeted ads. I realize that isn't popular, but we were always transparent. We exited the…

Can you link those filings for us? The article indicated that it was much larger slice of revenue than your comments here suggested.

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

#397
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a stalker, but that agreement is almost certainly unenforceable in civil court. It violates the basic principles of consideration and equity. There is extensive case law on those areas, which you might want to look into before wasting people's time making empty threats and bullshiting about subjects you clearly don't understand.

We are a public company with an audit and risk committee, multiple in-house lawyers, and external counsel. This was heavily discussed. Perhaps a court would limit the fine, but liquidated damages are a commonly used concept, and I don't think most people will tempt fate. Aggressive stalkers will buy dedicated GPS devices - this is a real roadblock.

> I don't think most people will tempt fate.

You're right: they'll just use your far more well-established competitor without such ridiculous language.

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

#398

LoJack used to be the go-to company for this. No more. Classic LoJack had good privacy. It's a box hidden somewhere in the car, with a connection to vehicle power. It has a transmitter, but normally doesn't transmit. If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. That broadcasts an ID over a subcarrier of some local FM broadcast station. The receiver in the Lojack unit listens for th…

> If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. By which time it is already chopped up for parts or, in the case of places like Phoenix, is already in Mexico. I used to have a roommate who grew up in NYC, had a somewhat dubious past and was talking about LoJack one day. He claimed it doesn’t work well enough in dense urban areas to get a precise location fix to actually impede theft…

> “park the car in an alley between buildings”

Fun fact. Very few alleys in NYC

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortlandt_Alley

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

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really it just depends on the situation, plenty of New Yorkers would be game. You kiddin me? Hell no. There are a lot of guns out there and we know it.

Supreme Court says guns aren’t only for the rich in nyc anymore. Maybe the thief has one, maybe the car owners does too.

> Supreme Court says guns aren’t only for the rich in nyc anymore.

That law evens the playing field for law abiding citizens. But hey man, you wanna cosplay Dirty Harry or Paul Kersey then by all means. Just hope the NYPD and DA are cool with your vigilantism.

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

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. By which time it is already chopped up for parts or, in the case of places like Phoenix, is already in Mexico. I used to have a roommate who grew up in NYC, had a somewhat dubious past and was talking about LoJack one day. He claimed it doesn’t work well enough in dense urban areas to get a precise location fix to actually impede theft…

> “park the car in an alley between buildings” Fun fact. Very few alleys in NYC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortlandt_Alley

I really just remember the part about LoJack not working in urban areas so I probably just interpreted that part. Or it could have been all made up, who knows?

Like this whole Kia Challenge thing, I’m sure a bunch of them are going to grow up and say they were crack auto thieves because they got six months community service for jacking their neighbor’s car with a usb cable.

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