Thoughts on Google turning every device into a scanner for Find My Device?
Thoughts on Google turning every device into a scanner for Find My Device?
Received notice of a change to the service in my inbox today. Seems icky to me.
Devices in the network use Bluetooth to scan for nearby items. If other devices detect your items, they’ll securely send the locations where the items were detected to Find My Device. Your Android devices will do the same to help others find their offline items when detected nearby
Your devices’ locations will be encrypted using the PIN, pattern, or password for your Android devices. They can only be seen by you and those you share your devices with in Find My Device. They will not be visible to Google or used for other purposes.
ETA: here's the link to opt out: opt out of the network
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A few days ago my wife's phone said there was an unknown airtag with her. It turned out to be an airtag in a kids friend backpack but for once it seemed like Google was looking out for the best interest of someone. It could have easily been a stalker trying to find where we lived.
It's still not worth the privacy risks imo. The feature should at least be opt-in
And it would only be about as useful as tile. Nobody opts in but everybody wants the service
As useful as tile is ideal to me. Don't allow for the global tracking but let's me make my keys or wallet make a noise when I misplaced them.
What I meant in opt-in is like make a switch somewhere in the first setup menu or make a pop-up telling about how useful it is and asking to enable it. And the problem is that this feature is not just opt-in but not even opt-out! You can't disable it and therefore it's straight up evil.
I can only imagine how often teacher's phone light up for these.
For AirTags, those notifications should only start if:
- The AirTag has not been with his owner for more than 4 hours
- The AirTag is moving
- The AirTag persistently stays close to another device that isn’t associated with the AirTag owners Apple ID
For Teachers this shouldn’t be an issue unless their students have tecb challenged parent. AirTags arent meant for tracking kids. If it’s their AirTag, they are with them and the alarm won’t trigger. If they have a shared AirTag (possible since iOS 17) they are with theyr own AirTag and the alarm won’t trigger. If they got one that is ONLY registered to their parents, then it will trigger the Anti Stalking feature and those parents should be educated on their problematic use of an AirTag.
Those kids should have an Apple Watch, all the tracking options for parents, none of the hassle of stalking alerts. Or they now just use a shared AirTag which they would then also need to have an Apple ID enabled device with them. So the watch is usually the more afordable and versatile option.
You think parents should get their kindergartens an Apple Watch?
Perhaps you think I'm referring to children past elementary school.
Regardless of what Apple says AirTags are and are not for people will use them however they see fit. For example, they are not for tracking pets but there are pet collars designed to hold an AirTag so clearly many people are ignoring Apple.
Attaching an AirTag to a child's backpack seems like an obvious way to track one's child, even if it's not supported use case.
The purpose isn't track things you know how to find but to find things that get lost; like children. There is also enough paranoia about kidnapping that I'm sure there are at least a few children in every classroom that are tagged.
There's a FOSS app for anyone who wants this functionality without Google