Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 439 posts

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

#111

Post by 2c2c2c »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #73
pnw wrote: post #48

This is a terrible suggestion because Apple has effectively removed the anti-theft features of Airtags in favor of protection against stalking. The thief will be notified of the tag in less than an hour usually. I see the alert anytime I mind my friends dog. Typically within 45-60 minutes of my friend leaving, I get an alert which includes a map of where I was tracked and my friends email address. The original Airtag…

I'm not sure how the notification stops the thief. If you're half decent at hiding things they won't be able to find it in less than half an hour, so they either stop and look during which time you can catch them or they abandon the car and you get it back since it's still being tracked.

I believe you can turn the sound on it when you get that alert, although there's guides on how to remove the speaker

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

#112

Post by Animats »

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 those IDs, and if its own ID comes up, it turns on. It starts loudly transmitting to units in police cars, giving approximate direction and range. If you see a police car with four short whip antennas on the roof in a square pattern, that's a Lojack-equipped vehicle. It's uses radio direction finding. The vehicle box has no idea where it is. It's a totally independent system - no cellular, no GPS.

So this only tracks vehicles which have flagged as stolen. It's not constantly phoning home.

Classic Lojack is a one-time charge, with no annual fees.

The current product, LoJack AnalProbe™, which they call "Connected Car", constantly phones home, reporting your location, battery level, etc. to the mothership. There's an app to review where you've been. And, inevitably, the EULA says that Lojack may "share information with LoJack’s affiliated companies, Service Providers and/or third parties in conjunction with the Software and Services and for the purpose of providing You with any promotional offers and marketing materials as may be permitted by applicable law."

You get to pay a subscription fee for this.

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

#113

Post by tracker1 »

TheDudeMan wrote: post #88

I assumed all new cars had GPS devices in them already, phoning home to the manufacturer. Is this not the case?

Many do... Although mine doesn't function anymore, since it is a 3G cell modem and well after 4G/LTE had become normalized (car companies and dated tech, who would figure). I never used it, so didn't bother to update last year when they finally offered an upgrade option.

My SO's new car definitely has it (OnStar) although the Android Auto UX is better IMO.

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

#114

Post by thepasswordis »

nwellinghoff wrote: post #110

Better idea. Maybe car manufacturers could introduce 2 factor to start your car. Of course one could disable this. But when you feel you are in a shady spot. Your car prompts your phone to enable two factor to start etc

Here's an even better idea: car theft should be practically non-existent in a modern, western city and instead of the mayor telling people to put airtags in their car he should be announcing how the literal armed police force he commands will be dealing with the issue.

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

#115

Post by rootusrootus »

dinkblam wrote: post #9

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 t…

Yeah after buying a few AirTags early on, I've largely given up on them. Too much of a hassle as it tries not to be usable to stalk, so I can't use it for the other handy use cases.

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

#116

Post by rootusrootus »

briffle wrote: post #25
dinkblam wrote: post #9

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 t…

I have a 'family' setup in our iphones for my wife and kids. My wife bought some airtags and put them in the cases for our kids expensive musical instruments, her keys, etc. We are configured as a family to share apps, set screen times, etc, but I can't see where those tags are, only my wife can on her phone. Worse, I get warnings every time I use her car for the day, that it found an uknown airtag riding with me. Or…

And if your kids are young enough not to have their own phone, when they go to school with an AirTag it'll start beeping a while later just to make sure nobody is stalking them.

It was a nice idea until all the people worried about stalking got involved. Never mind that a skilled stalker won't waste time or take the risk with an AirTag.

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

#117

Post by rootusrootus »

tssva wrote: post #70
pnw wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will also notify an Android phone if they have installed the app which Apple created for this purpose. I have to imagine thieves would know about this.

A thief can use the Apple provided app to discover if there is a tag, but I don't know that I would say it notifies them since unlike on an iPhone it would require the thief to actively open the app and perform a manual scan for the tag.

That's a distinction that doesn't really matter, because a thief is going to have that app installed and open after they've stolen something.

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

#118

Post by belltaco »

Zircom wrote: post #67
catiopatio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

At least for me a lot of automation and workflow stuff I have just doesn't exist on iPhones. I make heavy use of buzzkill, taskr and iftt, and the first two have no equivalent on iOS and probably never will. Pretty sure home screen widgets are next to non-existent as well on iOS.

> I make heavy use of buzzkill, taskr and iftt

What do you use them for? That sounds interesting.

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

#119

Post by belltaco »

catiopatio wrote: post #66
circuit10 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's your main concern you'd be better off with a "degoogled" OS on an Android phone with an unlocked bootloader. iOS is locked down and you can't really see or control what information is being sent. Here are some other reasons why you or other people might choose Android phones: - Generally cheaper/better value, especially on the low end - Less locked down (e.g. you can actually choose what browser engine you…

I’m sure someone running a custom Android image with an unlocked bootloader can figure out an Android-compatible alternative to AirTag.

Samsung has smart tags but they probably have the same or similar issues as Apple tags.

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

#120

Post by HDThoreaun »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #84
tohnjitor wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not be familiar with American politicians.

Have they always been this way or have they all become wildly out of touch more recently? To an outsider, American political discourse looks like it is completely divorced from reality.

Making a joke about how iPhones are better is basically the opposite of out of touch. Most new yorkers agree, and 90% of the others are used to the joke.
Post reply on HN