Apple’s Find My network now offers new third-party finding experiences

Post by clairity » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

matthew-wegner wrote: post #41

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter if they now know where my bike is parked, given that they already know where my phone is (i.e. I am) at all times? Meanwhile, I agree with you. It would be nice if Apple (or anyone) didn’t have this type of location information about me. However, it seems that ship has sailed and 5G + mesh networks will make it even more precise.

I don’t think that’s what the parent comment is referring to (Apple knowing, and they might not have that capability anyway). Find My-tracked devices emit a Bluetooth chirp. If any Internet-enabled iOS devices hears it, it forwards to iCloud/Apple backend. I can lose a WiFi-only iPad, and it can be fully off any WiFi connection, and still get a ping on its location if its Bluetooth chirps get relayed by a stranger’s…

Post by peytn » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:53 AM UTC

nkellenicki wrote: post #34

sokoloff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple controls the app, the network, and the devices that gather the location information. It seems like in order to show me where my missing item is, they have to be able to determine my device’s information. They might claim to choose not to do that correlation until I open the app and go looking, but once I do, it seems obvious that Apple can tell where my device is (in order that they can tell me where it is in t…

The "device information" is likely an opaque ID, and the "location" will likely be encrypted using an asymmetric key-pair set up during the pairing process, so the only thing capable of decrypting the location will be your phone. The part you're correct about is that as they control the device, there's nothing saying they can't build a backdoor into it that reports the information (ie. location) back to them once it…

Post by gst » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #47

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the business perspective, Apple probably doesn’t care about selling the tags, the real value is in making the iPhone experience better. So if a user buys a tile tracker and it works better on iOS because of the iPhone network, that’s a win for them. They don’t have to wipe out tile.

But it will wipe out Tile, unless I am missing something. Apple's solution would instantly make all iPhones into tag detectors, which is a vast improvement over the current Tile situation where only Tile customers' phones are tag detectors. Seems like the only answer for Tile is to get integrated with Apple's solution.

Post by thitcanh » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 7:09 AM UTC

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #30

solarkraft wrote: post #17

Why hasn't Google or a large Android manufacturer been doing this for years? BLE is not that young and and the contract tracing thing was executed extremely quickly and on the same technology (afaik, please correct).

Why didn’t they release their version of airdrop for almost a decade after iPhones had it? Google just doesn’t seem to care about these conveniences.

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 8:02 AM UTC

thitcanh wrote: post #57

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn’t they release their version of airdrop for almost a decade after iPhones had it? Google just doesn’t seem to care about these conveniences.

Aren’t most android phones still able to share files via Bluetooth? I thought that was the whole shtick of android back when people actually compared the two platforms.