Honestly, I think the problem here is the girl is crazy, not that she found her boyfriend using an airtag.
"AirTags don't kill people. People kill people!"
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Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#22Whenever some AirTag news come up, I see the argument that GPS trackers had existed for a while, and they could be purchased readily through AliExpress. The argument implies that additional threat posed by the prevalence of AirTag is non-existent as the threat model had existed before. This argument misses the point that to a non-technically-minded consumer, AirTag made stalking significantly easier not only on a tec…
To be honest, I was always on the “AirTags are harmless” side until reading your perspective. You are probably right that making the UX so simple and coming from a trusted brand will enable many more people to misuse the technology.
Ultimately, I think it comes down to the question: is this harmful enough that we should regulate it? Answering that involves weighing the benefits against the harms.
AirTags have plenty of legitimate uses and benefits. Stories such as this article show a very real downside to the technology, but isolated stories are not a great way to make an evaluation. Doom, gloom and death will always make a more compelling story than a million people saving 5 minutes finding their keys.
Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#23Whenever some AirTag news come up, I see the argument that GPS trackers had existed for a while, and they could be purchased readily through AliExpress. The argument implies that additional threat posed by the prevalence of AirTag is non-existent as the threat model had existed before. This argument misses the point that to a non-technically-minded consumer, AirTag made stalking significantly easier not only on a tec…
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Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#24Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#25Honestly, I think the problem here is the girl is crazy, not that she found her boyfriend using an airtag.
"AirTags don't kill people. People kill people!"
Well, except that in this case the statement holds true.
It’d take a considerable amount of force to kill someone with an AirTag.
Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#26Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#27Sounds like the victim and perpetrator lived together. What sort of publicity would this story get if she had turned on Find Friends on his phone and shared his location with her?
Don't users have to opt in to Find Friends?
There also feels like a huge difference between your personal device tracking you and that same device tracking anyone who happens to walk by. The dystopian aspect of AirTags is how they repurpose existing Apple devices to create a surveillance network.
Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you have, it still doesn't notify you. You have to open the app manually whenever you want to check for them.
I don't have an Android so can't verify this, but CNET makes it sound like the app scans automatically: > If Tracker Detect notices an AirTag that's been following you for at least 10 minutes, the app will then allow you to play a sound from the AirTag so that you can more easily find the physical tracker. [1] 1: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/how-to-tell-if-an-airtag-is...
I use Android and tested the official app. It doesn't warn you. You need to open the app and perform a manual scan.
There's an open source app called AirGuard that runs/scans in the background and sends you a notification if they detect "tracking". It drains some battery, but works okay.
Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#29Whenever some AirTag news come up, I see the argument that GPS trackers had existed for a while, and they could be purchased readily through AliExpress. The argument implies that additional threat posed by the prevalence of AirTag is non-existent as the threat model had existed before. This argument misses the point that to a non-technically-minded consumer, AirTag made stalking significantly easier not only on a tec…
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Re: Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
#30Sounds like the victim and perpetrator lived together. What sort of publicity would this story get if she had turned on Find Friends on his phone and shared his location with her?
Don't users have to opt in to Find Friends? There also feels like a huge difference between your personal device tracking you and that same device tracking anyone who happens to walk by. The dystopian aspect of AirTags is how they repurpose existing Apple devices to create a surveillance network.
Yeah, but the point is that if they lived together, there's a very good chance that she had the password to his phone, or had access to it when it was unlocked.