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pnwmom

(108,925 posts)
Fri Feb 11, 2022, 07:01 PM Feb 2022

This is kind of creepy. How almost anyone could be physically tracking you.

Thanks a bunch, tech companies.

Apple has installed a warning device on its phone that is supposed to tell you, but the warning sound isn't always enough to trace it. And other companies don't even do that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/technology/airtags-gps-surveillance.html

Apple released chic, sleek AirTags early last year as a way to keep track of keys and purses. Given the company’s history of introducing products — such as the original iPhone — that lead to mass adoption, AirTags could well lead consumers to location track everything all the time, so that nothing is ever lost again, ushering in a surveillance state with the cleanest of aesthetics.

But every new convenience comes with a price: In recent months, people have freaked out after finding AirTags hidden in their bags and on their cars. They were scared about being stalked or followed by someone wanting to steal their vehicles. A Sports Illustrated model, Brooks Nader, said she found one in her coat pocket after visiting a Manhattan bar. All these people received warnings on their iPhones, a feature Apple had built into the AirTag system to help prevent unwanted tracking.

When my colleague and I reported on this, experts we spoke with were of two minds about Apple’s attempts to prevent nefarious use, with some saying the alerts were inadequate and others praising the company for unearthing a larger problem: widespread surreptitious tracking, usually done with devices that don’t notify a person of their presence.

SNIP

Rather than communing with satellites circling the planet, they ping devices within 30 or so feet of them, such as the smartphone held by another person standing in line at the pharmacy. To help track down AirTags, Apple enlisted, per its own description, “hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and Mac devices all over the world.” That meant the AirTag’s effectiveness skyrocketed the day my husband traveled to New York City, because he was surrounded by people carrying iPhones.

SNIP

Another key difference between Tile and AirTag is that if an iPhone detects an unknown AirTag continuously moving with it, the iPhone owner gets a notification, along with a map showing where the tracking started. (Android owners, meanwhile, have to download a special app to look for AirTags. Tile said it planned to release a similar app for people worried about unwanted tracking.)

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This is kind of creepy. How almost anyone could be physically tracking you. (Original Post) pnwmom Feb 2022 OP
By the way, pnwmom, you left the stove on. The pot on the back burner is about to boil over. NT mahatmakanejeeves Feb 2022 #1
LOL. pnwmom Feb 2022 #2
Ah, so to defend against unwanted tracking, I have to buy an iphone? gristy Feb 2022 #3
Actually, you'd have to buy multiple brands of phones... Silent3 Feb 2022 #4
That's why I'm always wearing ymetca Feb 2022 #5
It used to be we could be protected just by wearing an aluminum foil hat, now... PoliticAverse Feb 2022 #6

Silent3

(15,018 posts)
4. Actually, you'd have to buy multiple brands of phones...
Fri Feb 11, 2022, 07:14 PM
Feb 2022

...and carry them all with you to get warning about both Apple and non-Apple tracking devices, in and when the non-Apple ones can also give you warnings.

ymetca

(1,182 posts)
5. That's why I'm always wearing
Fri Feb 11, 2022, 07:33 PM
Feb 2022

my Faraday cage when I go out!

For only 9 easy payments of $39.99 you too can feel safe and secure anywhere you go.

Please don't use your Faraday cage if you have a pace maker, or have fallen and can't get up.

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
6. It used to be we could be protected just by wearing an aluminum foil hat, now...
Fri Feb 11, 2022, 07:42 PM
Feb 2022

we need a whole aluminum foil suit.

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