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I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

nytimes.com

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Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#121

Post by rootusrootus »

kbos87 wrote: post #32

My comment isn’t specific to AirTags, but there’s a much larger conversation that needs to be had about this gray area of stalking capabilities that are now built into many mainstream products. Here’s a pattern I’ve seen play out more than once among friends and family - they share their location willingly and for seemingly benign reasons. It’s helpful to know when you’ll be getting home so I can start dinner! Just i…

I would think that the problem isn't just auditing, it is control. Reasonable people using the technology for good do not want to be bombarded with notifications. Better that we focus on control, making it more difficult to coerce someone into accepting tracking against their will, and making it easy to disable.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#122

Post by kelnos »

gwbas1c wrote: post #29

I often peek at my wife when she's coming home from work via our car's app. She knows I do this. (When my kids are with me they love watching the car move on the map. I hope she peeks at me when she's with the kids and I have the car.) What made it funny one time was when I was between jobs, and she went to her gynecologist after work. Even though she told me, I forgot, and the map only showed that there was a divorc…

> Even though she told me, I forgot, and the map only showed that there was a divorce lawyer's office in the parking lot. I really needed a hug when she walked in the door.

A fine example of why pervasive tracking is terrible for relationships. I'm assuming based on your tone that you were calm and collected and didn't fly off the handle with accusations when she got home. But I think there are many people who would give into their insecurities (we all have them) and create a big mess with this sort of knowledge. The "accidental" nature of it just makes it worse.

I'm getting a new car soon, and I'm weighing losing the utility of the things in the app vs. my desire not to be tracked. It's really annoying that I have to make that trade off.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#123

Post by chaircher »

crhulls wrote: post #107
latchkey wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us How would you know?

We get I think something on the order of 10,000 customer service tickets a week, and we regularly get subpoenas. We've heard almost every story you can think of. Although we are getting inquiries with this recent press, in terms of actual reports of stalking via our devices it is essentially zero. AirTags has a much broader network than us as of now. Part of why we bought Tile is because we can expand their network.…

What do you mean by "actual stalking report"?

ID verification is the way to go IMO. So much stalking isn't like in movies, it's just seemingly normal people seeing how far they can push things and get away with it. And potentially some way to get people to register what it's being used for, as well as a way to register it missing. That would be very useful in a stalking case to cross-reference with how a the alledged stalker claims the tracker ended up in someone's bag/car/etc and could potentially be the break through that gets the conviction

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#125

Post by protomyth »

908B64B197 wrote: post #119
acomjean wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I took my partners dog for the afternoon. It has an airtag (not an official supported use). I knew the dog had it but there was some comment made about our walk. Monitoring by proxy. When I worked at a power monitoring startup (we monitored home power use, by individual circuit) this passive monitoring came up. And our CEO mentioned to his wife that she was home early.. "how did you know?" He saw the garage doo…

One great use case of passive monitoring is detecting water leaks, especially for vacation homes. > It has an airtag (not an official supported use) I'm surprised. That sounds like a great use for it, especially for a larger breed that runs fast.

That is one use for monitoring, with the related use of doing so to your own home, that I think is really worth doing. Especially, if you live in the northland where freezing is a problem.

I often wonder about these services and if we can wrap them in enough privacy to make them feel safe to advanced users?

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#126

Post by not2b »

trinovantes wrote: post #68
kbos87 wrote: post #32

My comment isn’t specific to AirTags, but there’s a much larger conversation that needs to be had about this gray area of stalking capabilities that are now built into many mainstream products. Here’s a pattern I’ve seen play out more than once among friends and family - they share their location willingly and for seemingly benign reasons. It’s helpful to know when you’ll be getting home so I can start dinner! Just i…

Only a matter of time before we start seeing news of couples fixing their marriage by sharing AirTags with each other. I say this with sarcasm but recent years have made me wonder what is reality anymore.

A marriage that can only be "fixed" if each member is continuously surveilling the other is not "fixed".

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#127

Post by rootusrootus »

crhulls wrote: post #88

Hi All, I'm the cofounder and CEO of Life360, which is the relatively new owner of Tile. Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us, but we are in the process expanding the finding network via our 35 million+ active user base (will require opt-in consent) and we also do offer a location device for kids and pets (Jiobit) that has its own cell connection which is actually meant for finding people in real-time. We hav…

I am a mostly happy user of Life360, not currently paying (but I have in the past). I would be more likely to pay real money for the service if it came with a contractual guarantee that by paying for it, my data would never get sold. Not even in aggregate, 'anonymized'. I like the service, I'm willing to be a customer, but I hate the privacy leak.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#128

Post by coding123 »

So they can more than double detection if Apple opens a web service that lets you find out if you're recent coordinates were also tracked by giving such a service to Google. So instead of having your phone ping Apple, Google could do it for you and find out if you're being tracked.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#129

Post by kelnos »

ezfe wrote: post #111
kelnos wrote: post #89

> I opened an app linked to the most precise tracker in my arsenal, the $30 LandAirSea device. To activate it costs extra, because it needs a cellular plan to ping global positioning satellites. I feel like someone who writes about privacy and surveillance should at least know how GPS works... nothing "pings" a GPS satellite here. GPS signals are constantly being broadcast to the ground for anyone to receive. The cel…

does this distinction matter at all, in any way to the point they were trying to get across?

If someone is going to write an article about tracking and surveillance, to me it reduces their credibility if they don't understand something very basic about how GPS works. It makes me wonder what else they got wrong in the article, and whether or not I should trust their overall conclusions.

This might not matter to you, and that's fine; it does matter to me.

Re: I used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker to watch my husband’s every move

#130

Post by xeromal »

Klonoar wrote: post #98
crhulls wrote: post #88

Hi All, I'm the cofounder and CEO of Life360, which is the relatively new owner of Tile. Stalking hasn't been much of an issue for us, but we are in the process expanding the finding network via our 35 million+ active user base (will require opt-in consent) and we also do offer a location device for kids and pets (Jiobit) that has its own cell connection which is actually meant for finding people in real-time. We hav…

I have a slightly unrelated question about Life360. When Life360 sold Couple in 2016, did it sell all the data that users had stored up to that point as well? As best I can tell it was announced via tweet and sold to what looked like a 1-person dev shop. Myself and a number of others who used to use the app have often wondered this[1]. If I’m incorrect on anything in this article I would be happy to edit it, but I’d…

Another couple user in the wild. My girl and I used that for SO long! It's sad to see it gone. I stole the cute little dog and beaver emojis before it went offline and incorporated them into whatsapp.
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