Apple AirTags Triggered 'Explosion' of Stalking Reports Nationwide, Lawsuit Says (arstechnica.com) 89
Ashley Belanger reports via Ars Technica: This month, more than three dozen victims allegedly terrorized by stalkers using Apple AirTags have joined a class-action lawsuit filed in a California court last December against Apple. They alleged in an amended complaint (PDF) that, partly due to Apple's negligence, AirTags have become "one of the most dangerous and frightening technologies employed by stalkers" because they can be easily, cheaply, and covertly used to determine "real-time location information to track victims." Since the lawsuit was initially filed in 2022, plaintiffs have alleged that there has been an "explosion of reporting" showing that AirTags are frequently being used for stalking, including a spike in international AirTags stalking cases and more than 150 police reports in the US as of April 2022. More recently, there were 19 AirTags stalking cases in one US metropolitan area -- Tulsa, Oklahoma -- alone, the complaint said.
This seeming escalation is concerning, plaintiffs say, because Apple allegedly has not done enough to mitigate harms, and AirTags stalking can lead to financial ruin, as victims bear significant costs like hiring mechanics to strip their cars to locate AirTags or repeatedly relocating their homes. AirTags stalking can also end in violence, including murder, plaintiffs alleged, and the problem is likely bigger than anyone knows, because stalking is historically underreported. [...] Many plaintiffs said they had no clue what AirTags were when they first discovered hidden AirTags were being used to monitor their moves. At the very least, plaintiffs want Apple to be responsible for raising awareness of how AirTags are used by stalkers -- not just to inform people who are at risk of stalking but also to ensure law enforcement is aware. Plaintiffs have alleged that Apple did not provide information to police that prevented them from accessing protective orders and pressing criminal charges. The complaint also suggested other remedies Apple could provide, like improving the consistency of AirTag alerts, which plaintiffs claimed only sometimes appeared on iPhones, so that users are always aware when an AirTag is nearby. "Apple continues to find itself in the position of reacting to the harms its product has unleashed, as opposed to prophylactically preventing those harms," the complaint said.
A technology specialist for the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Corbin Streett, is also quoted in the complaint, pointing out that Apple's threat model seemed to only consider risks of strangers using AirTags for unwanted stalking, not abusive partners. That's a problem since advocacy groups like the federally funded Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center report (PDF) that the "vast majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know" and "intimate partner stalkers are the most likely stalkers to approach, threaten, and harm their victims." "I hope Apple keeps their learning hat on and works to figure out that piece of the puzzle," Streett said.
This seeming escalation is concerning, plaintiffs say, because Apple allegedly has not done enough to mitigate harms, and AirTags stalking can lead to financial ruin, as victims bear significant costs like hiring mechanics to strip their cars to locate AirTags or repeatedly relocating their homes. AirTags stalking can also end in violence, including murder, plaintiffs alleged, and the problem is likely bigger than anyone knows, because stalking is historically underreported. [...] Many plaintiffs said they had no clue what AirTags were when they first discovered hidden AirTags were being used to monitor their moves. At the very least, plaintiffs want Apple to be responsible for raising awareness of how AirTags are used by stalkers -- not just to inform people who are at risk of stalking but also to ensure law enforcement is aware. Plaintiffs have alleged that Apple did not provide information to police that prevented them from accessing protective orders and pressing criminal charges. The complaint also suggested other remedies Apple could provide, like improving the consistency of AirTag alerts, which plaintiffs claimed only sometimes appeared on iPhones, so that users are always aware when an AirTag is nearby. "Apple continues to find itself in the position of reacting to the harms its product has unleashed, as opposed to prophylactically preventing those harms," the complaint said.
A technology specialist for the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Corbin Streett, is also quoted in the complaint, pointing out that Apple's threat model seemed to only consider risks of strangers using AirTags for unwanted stalking, not abusive partners. That's a problem since advocacy groups like the federally funded Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center report (PDF) that the "vast majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know" and "intimate partner stalkers are the most likely stalkers to approach, threaten, and harm their victims." "I hope Apple keeps their learning hat on and works to figure out that piece of the puzzle," Streett said.
It started as a good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
But honestly, any slightly security-minded people could have sat around a table for five minutes and figured out how it would go.
1) Hidden device for inexpensively tracking anything any time it passes near pretty much any person with an electronic device on them.
2) Stalkers use devices
3) Tools for detecting stalkers deployed
4) Stalking victims get pissed off and litigious because they shouldn't have to scan themselves constantly to check for Apple-branded "Stalker's Little Helpers"
Re: It started as a good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: It started as a good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
There are plenty of similar devices. We cannot hold back technology.
How about, if you use them to stalk someone you go to jail for 20 years? Then the stalking will stop. Come up with harsh punishments.
This.
Knives are valuable tools for the preparation and consumption of food.
However, it is also a fact that every year, thousands of attacks against others are committed using at least some of those same knives.
So which do we outlaw:
1. Knives?
2. Assault?
Guess what? Society already decided that!!!
Problem Solved.
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So which do we outlaw:
1. Knives?
2. Assault?
Guess what? Society already decided that!!!
You might want to Google "illegal knife" before being snarky like this next time.
We haven't anticipating outlawing all knives; but some people want to outlaw all AirTag-like Item-Tracking Devices.
Big difference!
Re: It started as a good idea (Score:1)
Re: It started as a good idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Are there plenty of devices pre airtag?
I thought one of the features of airtag was it would connect to ANY iphone not just yours to figure out and broadcast its location. Technologically there's nothing unusual about it, but it could only be made from someone like Apple because they happen to have a few billion GPS-and-data connected devices they control scattered everywhere to make them work.
Other tech, i.e. tags with builtin GPS and cellular radios are much more expensive and battery hungry.
They even knew about the problem and released anti-stalking tools, but only for iPhone users. They even knew it as enough of a problem that they released an Android app to help, but the intentionally hobbled it.
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Are there plenty of devices pre airtag?
Pre-airtag you had to use GPS trackers with cellular connections, which are bigger (but still pretty small) and more expensive (but still pretty cheap: ~$40 up front plus $10/month). The biggest problem with GPS trackers is that the batteries in the smallest ones only last a couple of days. To get decent battery life you need to put them in a bigger battery case which makes them big and heavy enough you can't slip them in a backpack or purse, though you can stick them to the underside of a car. Even without
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I mean in as much as all technology is incremental.
But it's like drones: it was an incremental change in tech versus model aircraft. Except now they are cheaply available to almost everyone with no skill rather than a very niche hobby. It's basically the model quadcopter community plus better gyros. Incremental tech, huge change in practice.
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> There are plenty of similar devices. We cannot hold back technology.
True, but no other BLE beacons tap into the enormous number of iphones (or any other type of phones) around the world. That is, the cheapo key finders you get on Amazon all functionally do the exact same thing as an Airtag, but Apple phones don't report them to the mothership, so their stalking potential is almost zero.
How Apple can keep the functionality AND stop the stalking potential, I'm not sure. I suppose as a minimum they could
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Cops suprised (Score:2)
Easy fix (Score:3)
Apple probably just needs to make it clearer when you activate one of their AirTags that they'll happily turn over your account information to law enforcement if you use the device for unlawful purposes. They might want to also include that if you bring an AirTag to a large public event, you're going to annoy the fuck out of everyone in close proximity when their phones start alerting them to the presence of a nearby AirTag.
Or I suppose Apple could just voluntarily take the damn things off the market. I originally thought they might be a neat thing for anti-theft purposes, but the moment Apple thought it was a brilliant idea to let a thief know they're being tracked (presumably so they can tear apart whatever it is they stole, looking for the AirTag) they became absolutely useless for that purpose. Now they're really only useful for tracking errant luggage and for scatterbrained people who can't keep track of their own possessions. "How'd the weedeater end up in the sauna again? I'll be damned!"
Re:Easy fix (Score:5, Insightful)
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Invading your kid's privacy by needing to know their precise gps coordinates 24/7 should be discouraged because that's sick fucking behavior
Up to what age? In my view, tracking kids under your care up until they're at least 10 is a reasonable use case for AirTags. I'm not saying AirTag the kids 24/7 and let them go where they want, I'm saying that putting one on their person so you can find them in an emergency could be useful, especially for shopping trips, amusement parks, etc.
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Re: Easy fix (Score:3)
Am I really that old now to remember that parents would join their children in events like that and be a part of their kids lives? Instead just give kids a phone and a GPS tracker and say "good enough"?
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The issue about the stalking that this is about is non-consensual tracking. And if you as a parent do that to your children
Comming from a former Soviet Satellite where widespread surveillance was used to crack down on people that didn't agree with the Neo-Stalinist government, extorting them, and if that didn't work incarcerating them and torturing them, the "think of the children" hook is a very familiar, and highly concerning one. There the dictator liked to p
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Still, the things I said have happened before (happening again in China) and always have lead to misery, possibly because the power it gives eventually corrupted those that wield it.
So beware of that rhetoric that normalizes non consensual surveillance, which very often involves hooks for things that most people seek to protect like "children" and "property" from harm and theft. It's already critical enough as it is with phone tracking, where when I go to demonstrations already know that I sh
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Are your kids old enough to fly intercontinental by themselves to attend a public event? Then they are old enough to not have helicopter parent outsourcing parental supervision to a small electronic toy.
Decide how you raise your kids, either support and supervise them, or give them autonomy. Your case is a very good example of either stalking someone capable to make decisions by themselves, or outright bad by letting someone you think can't be trusted get "supervised" by a tiny electronic tracker.
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Re:Easy fix (Score:4, Informative)
Apple probably just needs to make it clearer when you activate one of their AirTags that they'll happily turn over your account information to law enforcement if you use the device for unlawful purposes.
This would be a good thing.
They might want to also include that if you bring an AirTag to a large public event, you're going to annoy the fuck out of everyone in close proximity when their phones start alerting them to the presence of a nearby AirTag.
Phones only alert if the AirTag follows you for an extended period of time across a certain amount of distance. If you're staying in the same place, it won't alert you. If the tag is staying in the same place, it won't alert you.
Or I suppose Apple could just voluntarily take the damn things off the market. I originally thought they might be a neat thing for anti-theft purposes, but the moment Apple thought it was a brilliant idea to let a thief know they're being tracked (presumably so they can tear apart whatever it is they stole, looking for the AirTag) they became absolutely useless for that purpose.
It is useless only if you don't start trying to track it for more than 8 hours (the minimum amount of time before the software starts warning you that an AirTag is moving with you). And realistically, after 8 hours, the thieves have opened the bag, gotten out all the contents, and ditched it in a dumpster somewhere, so you might recover the AirTag, but you won't recover your stuff.
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More fun at large public events is to download AirGuard, scan for AirTags, and then make them all play a chime.
It's an interesting way for criminals to locate stuff worth putting an AirTag on (i.e. worth stealing), and then locate the tag itself and disable it.
One defence is to disable the speaker on your tag, but it will still be detectable by anyone with an app.
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More fun at large public events is to download AirGuard, scan for AirTags, and then make them all play a chime.
It's an interesting way for criminals to locate stuff worth putting an AirTag on (i.e. worth stealing), and then locate the tag itself and disable it.
One defence is to disable the speaker on your tag, but it will still be detectable by anyone with an app.
Yup. The difficulty of detection is low enough that these sorts of technological anti-theft measures won't be useful for very long. The only thing that *really* solves the theft problem is making theft not pay. That means making every device have anti-theft locking built in so that only the original owner can use it, making cash rare, etc.
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Apple probably just needs to make it clearer when you activate one of their AirTags that they'll happily turn over your account information to law enforcement if you use the device for unlawful purposes.
And of course they're just going to take police's word for it? How about the police get a warrant and then Apple doesn't even have to make anything clear to the users. They just turn over the data.
They might want to also include that if you bring an AirTag to a large public event, you're going to annoy the fuck out of everyone in close proximity when their phones start alerting them to the presence of a nearby AirTag.
Admittedly so, I don't have any Apple devices (1 that has Linux on it), so I don't know for a fact how AirTag works, but based on my reading, you register a tag to your account when you purchase it. From that point on, any time the tag is within range of any iPhone, the iPhone registers the location. You can t
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That's how they originally worked - but then because of stalking concerns, now they do ding you if there's someone else's air tag in your close proximity for somewhere between 8 and 24 hours.
The problem is, that 8 hours is plenty of time for a stalker to do stalky stuff, and too short for helping you track stolen stuff, since you might take a few hours to even know your stuff is gone, so really it kind of fails on both counts.
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Apple probably just needs to make it clearer when you activate one of their AirTags that they'll happily turn over your account information to law enforcement if you use the device for unlawful purposes. They might want to also include that if you bring an AirTag to a large public event, you're going to annoy the fuck out of everyone in close proximity when their phones start alerting them to the presence of a nearby AirTag.
Or I suppose Apple could just voluntarily take the damn things off the market. I originally thought they might be a neat thing for anti-theft purposes, but the moment Apple thought it was a brilliant idea to let a thief know they're being tracked (presumably so they can tear apart whatever it is they stole, looking for the AirTag) they became absolutely useless for that purpose. Now they're really only useful for tracking errant luggage and for scatterbrained people who can't keep track of their own possessions. "How'd the weedeater end up in the sauna again? I'll be damned!"
Wait. It doesn't work that way.
In order to see nearby AirTags, an iPhone User must:
1. Launch the "Find My" App.
2. Tap the "Items" Tab.
From there, you are presented with a List of Nearby "Items"; from there you can set up subsequent Notifications for each listed "Item", etc.
But there is no "Automatically Notify When Any Nearby Item Detected" feature, thank Shiva!!!
On the other hand .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Police all over the country are urging people to hide AirTags in their cars to track stolen vehicles. Many air travelers routinely put AirTags in all their bags because of lost and stolen luggage at many major airports. In other words, AirTags are like every other technology in the world: many good applications, but also the potential for abuse.
Stalkers will stalk. Take away one gadget, and they'll use another. Complaining that AirTags make stalking easy is like complaining that VOIP makes swatting easy. The technology is here to say. The genie won't go back in the bottle.
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It's cheaper now.
Car-tracking GPS/cellular devices are like 30 years old.
But moderately more expensive.
Re: On the other hand .... (Score:1)
Putting an air tag in your car doesn't work anymore. We know thieves aren't always that smart, but they're smart enough to check for an air tag before they steal the car, or find it, and remove it from the car.
Airtag in your car is not a theft to turn these days, or a way to get your car back either.
Re: On the other hand .... (Score:5, Informative)
Try Googling "stolen vehicle found with AirTag" and you'll read lots of stories that prove otherwise. The NYPD actually gives away free AirTags to New York residents for exactly that purpose.
The warning to the thief is not immediate. If it were, we'd all be getting alerts constantly. The AirTag has to either travel with you for a considerable time, or you have to drive to your home or work address (as listed on your own iPhone). That gives the victim of window of opportunity to recover their property before the AirTag begins alerting the thief.
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If the thief knows to use a scanner app then they can get a warning about an AirTag in minutes. More likely though, they will just use a jammer.
Jammers are already used to block GPS signals. One way police can find chop shops where stolen cars are kept is to look for GPS jamming. I'm actually building them a new product to do it more efficiently as we speak.
Re: On the other hand .... (Score:1)
Well I agree with you, at least in part.
I'm just letting you know that The thieves are on to the air tag thing and have been for a while. It doesn't work anymore, at least for the crooks that are professional about it.
Re:On the other hand .... (Score:5, Informative)
Moreover, what goes unstated in the summary is that these victims were able to find “hidden” AirTags because AirTags announce themselves when they’re used like that: both iOS and Android will alert you if an AirTag is following you that isn’t yours and AirTags are equipped with a speaker to audibly declare its presence. Meanwhile, Tile and plenty of other companies offer products that can be used to stalk, but won’t alert the victim. There’s an entire industry of surveillance products specifically designed to not alert someone that they’re being stalked. The reason these people knew they were being stalked was because Apple designed the device to make it difficult to stalk successfully, but it can’t stop people from trying.
Stalkers are going to stalk, just as you said. Don’t shoot the messenger.
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Apple designed the device to make it difficult to stalk
apple designed it to be harder to stalk iPhone users. Android users can go fuck themselves. Stalk away! Or did they fix all the major problems with the Android app yet?
Stalkers are going to stalk, just as you said.
This thread is full of people pretending that just because something theoretically exists nothing changed. This is false. Tracking devices went from rare, expensive and high effort to small, cheap and convenient. This makes a huge difference
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The update enabling that on Android only came out a month or two ago.
Apple was irresponsible in not working with Google to make sure that Android phones could detect AirTags before roll-out. Google has delayed the introduction of its version of AirTags (which are an open standard) while Apple deploys an update for iOS to detect them.
Apple seems to be dragging their feet on it. It was announced earlier this year, but no sign of the tags because we are waiting on Apple.
Airlines (Score:4, Interesting)
My friends put airtags in their luggage and stroller when flying to Europe. It came in handy as everything went to another airport. He knew where his luggage was before walking up to the lost luggage counter.
"My bags are in Austin."
"Well, let's look it up... I don't see where they are, they might not be scanned yet..."
"They are in Austin, along with the stroller we need."
Agent calls Austin... "Well it looks like they are in Austin..."
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Except that the results of your examples amount to no net benefit, but the stalking implications have a lot of downsides.
Police all over the country are doing fuck all with air tag information, and no most of them do not encourage self tracking because it leads to vigilantism and people getting killed.
And very few air travellers are putting Air Tags in their luggage, and those who do find out very quickly that it makes no differences. Airlines have systems in place to deal with mishandled "lost" luggage. Ai
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Bro this whole post is out of character for you. I am really amazed by the amount of faith you have in the baggage tracking system.
What about Tile? (Score:1)
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Just allow reverse tracking (Score:2, Interesting)
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If your phone (all major versions should be supported) detects an airtag nearby, you should be able to see the location of the airtag owner's phone in real time. Just a convenience, not a privacy risk after all....
The whole reason other exactly the same hardware products don’t work worth a damn at all is because you need to opt in. Only devices with the applicable app installed and enabled will it work. On a tile, I get maybe 1-2 pings per week whereas with an air tag in the same area I get dozens per day. The reason is with Apple, short of disabling all Bluetooth services or location services on your entire phone which screws up many other functions you cannot opt out or shut it off thus anyone with an iPho
Possession 9/10ths rule (Score:2)
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Elephant in the room (Score:1)
What about the biggest stalkers of all: Apple?
Who's filing lawsuits against Apple for putting out beacons and marshalling their users' products behind their back to act as beacon receivers and participate in a giant surveillance network?
If perverts deserve to be sued for misusing AirTags, Apple should definitely be sued for providing the technical means for perverts to stalk their victims.
And gee... Apple itself does know where every AirTag in the world is. That creepy as hell in my book. What were they thi
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Don't forget the companies that sell doorbell cameras, then monitor everything each camera sees and offer it to law enforcement agencies with zero government oversight. Whole streets under 24/7 surveillance is an ugly thought for anybody who values their privacy.
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I own a cellphone and it runs a deGoogled Android.
There are (still) ways to own a cellphone and limit the privacy attack surface. Google doesn't know anything more than they need to know about me because my cellphone doesn't snitch on me.
And of course Apple will never know anything about me because I'll never buy a device that I can't sideload anything on, escape the manufacturer's ecosystem or curtail what the manufacturer can run on MY device.
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Tell me: how does one live a normal life without a goddamn cellphone in 2023?
When your bank / state / health insurance requires an app to perform basic operations and have basic interactions with them?
When your hairdresser will only validate your appointment if you answer an SMS?
When you can't activate your DJI camera without "activating" it with a cellphone and their stupid app?
It's all well and good to post passive-aggressive comments on here and pretend the only way to escape the crypto-fascist state we
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No. You seem hyper focused on one thing and can't see the bigger picture. You are constantly being tracked by apps, by your phone, by cellular companies, but noooo, you draw the line at an iPhone. That's so sophomoric.
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You are constantly being tracked by apps, by your phone, by cellular companies, but noooo, you draw the line at an iPhone. That's so sophomoric.
Way to misread what I wrote...
I said Apple is a lost cause because the device is fully controlled by Apple - not by you the owner - and you don't know what it does exactly, while Android is marginally better because you can (still) put a stop to the most egregious privacy violations, albeit at great costs in terms of time and technical chops.
Is Android perfect? HELL NO! But it gives the user a way to take some of the control back. Only some of the control, sadly...
As for being tracked by cell companies: of
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Tell me: how does one live a normal life without a goddamn cellphone in 2023?
I agree. I have encountered many of those things myself. A lot of it being the result of the 2FA for which we all clamored.
That's why I posit that, just by participating in The First World, enough "you" leaks out around the edges from a thousand pinholes, that it is somewhat foolish to believe that a semi-accurate profile of pretty much anyone but Ted Kaczynski cannot be assembled by anyone with a desire to do so.
Does that mean I publish my Social Security Number on my email sig; or freely give my CC info t
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Tell me: how does one live a normal life without a goddamn cellphone in 2023?
correct, but you're missing the point: avoiding iphones altogether is a mitigation, "degoogling" your android is another, neither of them are enough by any means. if you own and use a phone, you are exposed.
there is nothing you can do to prevent that short from building your own phone from prime materials up, writing your own os (that would be the easy part) and of course write your own apps or only use opensource ones that you have exhaustively reviewed and vetted first (ofc that means no apps for ... bank
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Tell me: how does one live a normal life without a goddamn cellphone in 2023?
correct, but you're missing the point: avoiding iphones altogether is a mitigation, "degoogling" your android is another, neither of them are enough by any means. if you own and use a phone, you are exposed.
there is nothing you can do to prevent that short from building your own phone from prime materials up, writing your own os (that would be the easy part) and of course write your own apps or only use opensource ones that you have exhaustively reviewed and vetted first (ofc that means no apps for ... bank / state / health) or ... the easy way, not owning a phone at all and we're back at 0 or debating the definition of "normal life".
I said basically that https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org] ; but then, I get Punish-modded "Troll" by The Haters.
Good Luck! They're out in force tonight!
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Regarding Apple being the stalker (Score:2)
It should be possible to anonymize the tag's GPS location. The tag sends its ID and public key to the nearby phone, which encrypts its own GPS location and sends that, in a very public minimalist protocol.
You decrypt where your tag is, yourself.
Then no corporations, only the people around you, know where you are. Which is the way it's always been.
Re: Regarding Apple being the stalker (Score:3)
Explosion of reporting (Score:2)
The important bit is in the title (Score:2)
"Apple AirTags Triggered 'Explosion' of Stalking Reports Nationwide, Lawsuit Says"
Emphasis added.
Is stalking itself on the rise, or reports of it? I'm skeptical that there are a significant number of people out their thinking "Well, I wouldn't have stalked my ex, but now that I've got this AirTag..."
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They would still be stalking but its somehow unlikely that they’d be using a tracker even though suitable devices have been sold on ebay and amazon for as low as $5 for years before airtags come out. You gotta remember a lot of these folks are stupid as fuck.
Airtags are deliberately easy to find for this reason and not even the cheapest option so anyone who was smart enough to get a purpose made device or build something out of a rpi-W or whatever is already totally excluded from the group of people
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Dude you just need to broadcast gps coords. You can get get a micro-sbc with a data plan that’s like $.50/mb and a lot of the old pre-built devices were also cellular enabled.
One word to summarize: (Score:2)
Humans.
Anything mankind does for good, another human will find a way to misuse it against their own kin.
Uh... okay. AirTags lack agency. (Score:2)
Regulate Airtags as we should firearms (Score:2)
I know this sounds nuts, but perhaps we shouldn't allow people to buy air tags without passing a background check.
If someone comes across as a violent criminal or has a history of domestic violence/abuse, perhaps they shouldn't be sold an air tag or any other tracking device.
Apple has done a good job with alerts on air tags, but regulatory bodies could improve the situation not just for Apple, but other vendors as well.
This made me lol (Score:2)
At the very least, plaintiffs want Apple to be responsible for raising awareness of how AirTags are used by stalkers
AirTags are probably the worst in class stalking devices and similar devices existed for ages and were only a minor nuisance until Apple “Showed people what they didn’t even know they wanted” (for stalking their ex-wives)
Apple raising further awareness about the dangers of their devices will only ensure that even the stupidest and most unaware of dipshits, who are unable to fathom consequences, plan, or even come up with the occasional good idea on their own will now be aware that the Appl
Poor theft deterrent (Score:2)
I thought about getting a few to put on high value items, but once they started alerting those around they were being tracked, it made me decide it was relatively useless for that use.
A tracker that notifies people nearby (Score:2)
A tracker that notifies people nearby that they are being tracked is causing an increase in the number of reports of being tracked.
I postulate that actually this hasn't increased the number of stalkers, but simply the number of REPORTS of stalkers, since now the stalked will be notified after a period of time that they have a tracker nearby. This tech is nothing new - you could buy cell-enabled GPS trackers long before airtags, and cheaper things like Tile or Smarttag which will NOT notify you..
Sue Kodak (Score:2)
You could say the same thing about a bunch of other technologies. Photography and cameras made it much easier to stalk people as well. Messaging apps made it easier to send people unwanted messages etc.. etc...
All new technologies come with upsides and downsides and I think it's an awful precedent to set to suggest that anyone who introduces a new technology is responsible for mitigating any downsides that technology might have. It's particularly ridiculous in a country that accepts the idea that gun mak