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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

#61

Post by judge2020 »

m463 wrote: post #56
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…

Especially because apple has a lot riding on their use of crowdsourcing even though they have a privacy stance. Personally I think privacy and crowdsourcing cannot go together, no matter how much algebra and privacy boilerplate is thrown in.

Note that Tile already does this mesh network of crowdsourcing. The issue is that Apple pushes privacy so much that it's bound to be a bigger story when they mess up compared to others, as stated in the OP.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#62

Post by takeda »

gnicholas wrote: post #58

> If you are an iPhone user, for instance, and someone has placed an AirTag on your person, your phone will eventually alert you that an AirTag that isn’t yours has been found “moving with you.” Apple didn’t clarify how quickly or often this alert will arrive, but it did share that it will occur when you arrive at your home (the address stored in your Apple “Me” card) or at certain other locations that your phone has…

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

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#63

Post by 464733838373 »

w0mbat wrote: post #18

All these stalking counter-measures make it useless if your device is stolen rather than mislaid. If my bag is stolen I want it to contain a hard to find device, not one that gives away its position (by warning the thief). I also want an easy mechanism to give the police temporary access to track it, til they catch the thief and get my stuff back.

Joke's on you, police don't do that anymore because blm decided holding non-violent criminals accountable is racist.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#65

Post by londons_explore »

How exactly can stalking protection work with apples claim that the system doesn't provide any outsider or apple themselves the ability to track your airtag?

Surely stalking protection is doing exactly that? Couldn't I take a modded/hacked iPhone and track somebody elses tag all day long from near the edge of UWB range?

Apples original paper [1] said the signals emitted contained no unique/trackable identifier except to the key-holder who could link together all the rolling keys. Yet that can never offer this stalking protection feature.

Have Apple dropped the privacy protections they had in mind to enable this anti-stalker feature?

[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluet...

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#67

Post by judge2020 »

smiley1437 wrote: post #22

I'm curious - does Tile have similar protections for their devices? Because I found this article that says Tile trackers were used by bad actors https://blog.malwarebytes.com/stalkerware/2019/07/helping-su... So, if Airtags have stalking protections, why wouldn't I just use a Tile to track someone? They're sortof in the same ballpark of price and size. Is it because Apple's scale is so wide that it makes their Airtag…

The only reason a hypothetical stalker would choose Airtags is if they needed the larger network of devices (say, in a rural area where the victim likely has an Apple device but doesn't have a Tile nor neighbors with a Tile) and only needs their location for 3 hours (the time before it alerts the victim with the beeping).

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#68

Post by Alupis »

nodesocket wrote: post #23
w0mbat wrote: post #18

All these stalking counter-measures make it useless if your device is stolen rather than mislaid. If my bag is stolen I want it to contain a hard to find device, not one that gives away its position (by warning the thief). I also want an easy mechanism to give the police temporary access to track it, til they catch the thief and get my stuff back.

> give the police temporary access to track it, til they catch the thief and get my stuff back. I don’t know where you live, but as somebody who previously lived in San Francisco, do you really think the police are going to actively pursue theft claims? It’s why car break-ins and petty theft are out of control in the bay area. The police don’t enforce laws, and certainly don’t actively track down stolen property.

If you dig a little deeper, you'll find out the issue isn't police choosing not to enforce the laws in SF...

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#69

Post by microtherion »

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…

On the other hand, I can virtually guarantee that even if a Tile or Samsung tag is used that way, occasionally the headlines will mention Apple in a negative light anyway.

It just comes with the mindshare, I guess.

Re: Apple reveals more about AirTag stalking protections

#70

Post by judge2020 »

ibudiallo wrote: post #30

Ok, so I made these things called OttoTags in 2017. Think of them as AirTags with QR code instead (I'm a solo dev) From what I understand, when you find an airtag, you connect it to your device and it gives you the owners contact info. Anyone can get your phone number. When you find an ottotag, you scan it and you contact the owner through ottomon. From here the GPS location is captured and communicated. All interact…

> Anyone can get your phone number.

If you put it in lost mode. Otherwise, it doesn't reveal the owner's phone number. It's assumed that clicking lost mode and putting a phone number means you expect to be called about that lost item.

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