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Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

fastcompany.com

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Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#131

Post by rimliu »

toxik wrote: post #126
baybal2 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really not. Prior to the big buzz about drones, and DJI buying full page ads describing how their software can load no fly zones, avoid nuclear power stations, prisons, flight into people etc, nobody was ever concerned with some random Chinese gizmo. And then he made people in places of power to read all kinds of scary things, to which they reacted in the most usual to them manner.

As a counter point, my flight was unable to land some years ago because some moron was flying his drone in the airport airspace.

Was it DJI drone?

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#132

Post by jakear »

ohazi wrote: post #109
jakear wrote: post #97

This is such an amazingly terrible invention I have no clue where to begin. How many people will be sexually assaulted by predators planting these devices in the bags of unsuspecting folks at bars and tracking their every location? How many domestic abuse survivors will be terrorized by their abusers planting the tag on some possession then having access to their every location? Hell, how many folks will be burglariz…

> and I have no clue why they haven’t been implanted. Off the top of my head: a notification any time a tag has been away from it’s owners device for more than X time and has been around your device for at least Y time since, saying “it looks like XXX’s airtag has been lost and is with you, click here to message them” Did you read past the headline? Apple is doing exactly this.

Did you? Only if they have an iPhone. “Don’t want to be assaulted/stalked/robbed via our $29 device? Buy our $1,000 device!”

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#133

Post by jakear »

simondotau wrote: post #111
jakear wrote: post #97

This is such an amazingly terrible invention I have no clue where to begin. How many people will be sexually assaulted by predators planting these devices in the bags of unsuspecting folks at bars and tracking their every location? How many domestic abuse survivors will be terrorized by their abusers planting the tag on some possession then having access to their every location? Hell, how many folks will be burglariz…

> Off the top of my head: a notification any time a tag has been away from it’s owners device for more than X time and has been around your device for at least Y time That's exactly what Apple has done. This isn't even new information. It was part of the AirTags announcement on the 20th of April. "iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be t…

“Don’t want to be assaulted/stalked/robbed via our $29 device? Buy our $1,000 device!”

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#134

Post by Jcowell »

gruez wrote: post #80
londons_explore wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The random ID has a fixed suffix in the spec, so you can infer that it’s the same AirTag if you see the same suffix across multiple rotations. So if that suffix is 8 or more bits, as soon as you have an airtag on your keys, wallet, and bag, you've become a nice easy to track person. If the suffix is less than 8 bits, then the 200 airtags around me in a classroom setting will always be falsely setting off the alert…

just spitballing here... >So if that suffix is 8 or more bits, as soon as you have an airtag on your keys, wallet, and bag, you've become a nice easy to track person. This can be easily solved by disabling the fixed bits if an "owned" device (eg. your iphone) is present. It prevents the anti-stalking feature from being used, but presumably if you can get a phone to follow the person you can probably get a GPS tracker…

We can avoid speculation and just read the Specs here it seems : https://images.frandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Find...

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#135

Post by Alupis »

ViViDboarder wrote: post #130
Alupis wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your link: > For example, the government commits to broadcasting the GPS signal in space with a global average user range error (URE) of ≤7.8 m (25.6 ft.), with 95% probability. Actual performance exceeds the specification. On May 11, 2016, the global average URE was ≤0.715 m (2.3 ft.), 95% of the time Which assumes clear skies and good line of sight... Neither condition exist inside your pocket or house. Regard…

From your quote: > Actual performance exceeds the specification. On May 11, 2016, the global average URE was ≤0.715 m (2.3 ft.), 95% of the time

Did you read nothing else? That is the best possible case, as measured by someone's particular device under ideal conditions - which simply do not exist for a cell phone or a device in a pocket, backpack, or house.

Civilian grade gps receivers often do not have large antenna, can track only a few active satellites at once (often only processing 3-4 satellites even if they are aware of 20 or more) and only receive a single frequency of signals instead of both available frequencies. You want your device to be thin, right?

All this means your stolen cell phone, in someone's pocket inside of a building is going to have horrible resolution, unless it augments it's position data with other sources such as realtime cell tower triangulation or is in a really dense, previously observed wifi area... which are things not available to these tracker devices.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#137

Post by Jcowell »

asiachick wrote: post #127
simondotau wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Off the top of my head: a notification any time a tag has been away from it’s owners device for more than X time and has been around your device for at least Y time That's exactly what Apple has done. This isn't even new information. It was part of the AirTags announcement on the 20th of April. "iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be t…

So I can track every person that doesn't have an iPhone? > an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. How long is "extended"? It probably won't take more then 60-90 minutes to track someone. This also sounds really annoying. Anytime I leave a tag somewhere I have to somehow be able to tell it "don't buzz" and if I forget it annoys all the pe…

3 days : https://images.frandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Find... but you can also follow someone around for 60-90 minutes as well.

I don’t viable these are viable for tracking since these are linked to your iCloud. I’m willing to bet that with a. Warrant Law enforcement can ask Apple to identify a specific airtag.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#138

Post by jakear »

Jcowell wrote: post #137
asiachick wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I can track every person that doesn't have an iPhone? > an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. How long is "extended"? It probably won't take more then 60-90 minutes to track someone. This also sounds really annoying. Anytime I leave a tag somewhere I have to somehow be able to tell it "don't buzz" and if I forget it annoys all the pe…

3 days : https://images.frandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Find... but you can also follow someone around for 60-90 minutes as well. I don’t viable these are viable for tracking since these are linked to your iCloud. I’m willing to bet that with a. Warrant Law enforcement can ask Apple to identify a specific airtag.

Knowing whose airtag it is isn’t all that helpful in domestic abuse cases. My partner is a domestic abuse survivor, if there were an airtag found on her items we’d know exactly whose it is, but we’d still be scared for both of our lives, probably need to permanently vacate our living area, and the police wouldn’t be all too helpful. (Restraining order already in place, not much help when the opposing party is insane)

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#139

Post by serf »

djrogers wrote: post #35

There are a lot of comments here about how useless these protections are, because A or B already exist, or C works better for stalking. I think most of those comments are missing the real point here. If an Apple product were ever used to stalk - or God forbid, harm - an individual, it would be a big national story. If a Tile or a Samsung tag (or an amazon gps tracker made for stalking) were used in the same way, it w…

>If an Apple product were ever used to stalk - or God forbid, harm - an individual, it would be a big national story. If a Tile or a Samsung tag (or an amazon gps tracker made for stalking) were used in the same way, it would likely only be mentioned in passing if the story were reported at all.

it's weird to ascribe some kind of martyr-complex to how Apple is treated.

They're treated that way because they are by far the largest single corporation in the mobile game, not because the media has some sort of anti-apple fetish.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#140

Post by takeda »

meatmanek wrote: post #103
takeda wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also find it ironic, that from the quote you posted it also sounds like: "no one can stalk you but us".

s/us/your phone, that we control the software for/ I believe this learning is done on-device, not relayed to the cloud. Depending on whether you take Apple's statements at face value about how much they care about your privacy, that's either a big difference or a meaningless difference.

I doubt that figuring the places that you frequent is computed on your phone. Most likely it sends your locations and then Apple runs hadoop jobs (or whatever it is used these days) to get these things.
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