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NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

arstechnica.com

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Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#81

Post by JumpCrisscross »

vkou wrote: post #64
tehjoker wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.

> it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag

Which is affected by the mayor, a former cop, name dropping AirTags in relation to car thefts in the press.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#82

Post by catiopatio »

Zircom wrote: post #67
catiopatio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

At least for me a lot of automation and workflow stuff I have just doesn't exist on iPhones. I make heavy use of buzzkill, taskr and iftt, and the first two have no equivalent on iOS and probably never will. Pretty sure home screen widgets are next to non-existent as well on iOS.

Thanks for the informative answer. Frankly, it’s a shame that most consumers have to choose between either spyware-computer or privacy-preserving-consumption-console.

That said, I simply can’t blame someone for considering an iPhone to be the default choice for the majority of consumers.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#83

Post by JumpCrisscross »

zzzeek wrote: post #11

who here can already see clearly the NYPD officer's completely blank stare when you show them exactly where the car thief took your car. "did you see them do it? otherwise it's not our problem"

> did you see them do it? otherwise it's not our problem

If we're trading anecdotes, I had two laptops lifted from my apartment. The NYPD's detectives followed up with the building for footage, identified a suspect, followed up with the resident they were seen with, got the suspect's Instagram and got an arrest warrant. That resulted in them nabbing the guy when he was ticketed for jumping a subway turnstile.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#84

Post by spaceman_2020 »

tohnjitor wrote: post #8
politelemon wrote: post #3

This article throws up many flags for me, not necessarily red, but of a worrying color. It first celebrates surveillance devices as a net positive and hand-waves away its problems. But most importantly, it is awfully shortsighted to allow a single company to entrench itself further into societal transactions. However, hearing it is inconvenient, so I am often dismissed for saying so. > They're made by Apple, which me…

You must not be familiar with American politicians.

Have they always been this way or have they all become wildly out of touch more recently? To an outsider, American political discourse looks like it is completely divorced from reality.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#85

Post by xur17 »

pnw wrote: post #48

This is a terrible suggestion because Apple has effectively removed the anti-theft features of Airtags in favor of protection against stalking. The thief will be notified of the tag in less than an hour usually. I see the alert anytime I mind my friends dog. Typically within 45-60 minutes of my friend leaving, I get an alert which includes a map of where I was tracked and my friends email address. The original Airtag…

> The thief will be notified of the tag in less than an hour usually. I see the alert anytime I mind my friends dog. Typically within 45-60 minutes of my friend leaving, I get an alert which includes a map of where I was tracked and my friends email address.

In the article, they recommended that you "hide the airtag well", so it's most likely that the thief will receive the notification after a while, and decide to just dump the car.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#87

Post by jtbayly »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #73
pnw wrote: post #48

This is a terrible suggestion because Apple has effectively removed the anti-theft features of Airtags in favor of protection against stalking. The thief will be notified of the tag in less than an hour usually. I see the alert anytime I mind my friends dog. Typically within 45-60 minutes of my friend leaving, I get an alert which includes a map of where I was tracked and my friends email address. The original Airtag…

I'm not sure how the notification stops the thief. If you're half decent at hiding things they won't be able to find it in less than half an hour, so they either stop and look during which time you can catch them or they abandon the car and you get it back since it's still being tracked.

I don’t recommend going and confronting a car thief.

And I doubt the police will be there in half an hour. You’ll be lucky to convince them you have the location sometime the next day, when it’s far too late.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#89

Post by HDThoreaun »

jtbayly wrote: post #87
HDThoreaun wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how the notification stops the thief. If you're half decent at hiding things they won't be able to find it in less than half an hour, so they either stop and look during which time you can catch them or they abandon the car and you get it back since it's still being tracked.

I don’t recommend going and confronting a car thief. And I doubt the police will be there in half an hour. You’ll be lucky to convince them you have the location sometime the next day, when it’s far too late.

Eric adams does recommend confronting a car thief I guess. Really it just depends on the situation, plenty of New Yorkers would be game. Might even prefer it to hoping the cops deal with it. Personally if my only choice was ask cops for help I'd consider the car gone. I can round up a few of the boys and confront the thief given an hour or two, and at least I'd get my car back. No idea if NYPD is as worthless as my pd though.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#90

Post by bsder »

dinkblam wrote: post #9

i am unsure how AirTags can be recommended by anyone in any situation to prevent theft. their "anti-tracking" features make them completely useless in any situation where theft is involved (or theft happens after loosing the item). the thief is alerted to their presence automatically and can disable them quickly. perfect for thieves! AirTags can only be used for misplaced items, any utility for situations involving t…

> another case where giving a 0.01% case too much attention makes the normal 99.99% use case completely impossible..

But the 0.01% will give Apple horrible press, so it's more important than anything else.

The fact that tags aren't useful to you isn't the issue.

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