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I tracked my kid with Apple's Airtags to test its privacy features
- nathancahill 5y agoClickbait alert spreading FUD. > The safeguards are a work in progress They aren't, the safeguards existed from day 1. > After another 10 minutes, my heart started to race; still nothing. Author seems to not understand how AirTags work by communicating with other devices?
- madeofpalk 5y agoMore importantly, it doesn't appear to actually do what the title says? Did the privacy features (AirTag popping notification on iOS device and making a sound after three days) actually work?
- datfrojo 5y agoIt did not because the author had not updated the user’s device (aka the babysitter) to iOS 14.5. Either the author doesn’t understand that 14.5 is required or they are being deliberately misleading for views.
- madeofpalk 5y agoIt sounds like this was still the same day (did his kid not return home for three days), so even on 14.5 it wouldn't have triggered this. So much for testing
- nathancahill 5y agoIS iOS 14.5 required to get notified? I'm having trouble finding information on that. I know iOS 14.5 is required to setup AirTags.
- codyb 5y agoMy impression from “work in progress” was that they’ll continue to be evaluated and evolve as time goes on. Seemed like a decent faith attempt to try the things out. I didn’t know, for instance, that without upgrading iOS they wouldn’t work, although of course that makes sense. Or about the three day beeping feature. Or even that they only communicate with the network via other devices. Presumably the kids on the school bus didn’t have updated iPhones I guess.
- datfrojo 5y agoThe find my network has existed for some time (2019 if I recall correctly) and was originally introduced so that the network of iPhones could locate lost MacBooks. Airtags can be located by the find my network using devices running older ios versions. It is only the Airtag specific features which require 14.5 (I.e privacy features, pairing, identifying found airtag). I
- soneil 5y ago> The safeguards are a work in progress I find it curious that I've never seen any such articles for Tile and co. It really feels like that by taking any steps to solve it at all, all Apple have actually achieved is to bring awareness to an issue which either already existed, or never existed? Why are airtags being treated specially here?
- madeofpalk 5y agoProbably for the same reason why Apple added additional measures that Tile and co. didn't - Apple is placed on a higher pedestal and has a lot more attention focused on it. Put bluntly, people don't care about Tile as much as they care about Apple (in both a positive and negative way).
- michaelt 5y agoGetting super-high levels of press attention is both a blessing and a curse for Apple. A blessing because they get loads of hype and attention when they release a new laptop or cell phone - far more than Dell or HTC product releases do. A curse because it's been possible to buy generic GPS tracker modules on ebay for years, and yet the moment Apple starts selling trackers they get far more attention than ebay sellers ever did. And stories about chinese factory worker suicides, right-to-repair and environmental damage from raw material mining all like to mention Apple by name.
- maxerickson 5y agoApple's surveillance network is a lot bigger.
- DennisP 5y agoWell darn. All I want is something really thin I can attach to my Kindle, and track down where I left it in my house, using some kind of local wireless transmission. Something that could receive a signal and beep would work, too. I thought Airtags might be a solution but it turns out it's trackable from miles away and reports to iCloud? I have no need for that and whatever safeguards they put in place, it's a potential privacy hole with no benefit to me. What's on the market that does nothing but help you find it when it's kicked under the couch?
- unstatusthequo 5y agoTile?
- DennisP 5y agoJust checked their website and they do collect information centrally, by having everyone with the app notice any nearby Tile. I don't want that, I want to find it with my own phone or not at all.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tashoecraft 5y agoI guess what did you think airtags were? They emit out a uuid and other iOS devices will process it in the background to let the owner know where they are, but not random users. I think in terms of actual security risks it’s not worse then anything else you have. If it’s only in your house then you never need to worry about it pinging another users iOS device.
- DennisP 5y agoIt's not only in my house, I carry it everywhere. I just don't lose it except in my house.
- tashoecraft 5y ago
- marcus_holmes 5y agoWhy does any site believe that playing video at me without giving me a chance to consent to it or an obvious "stop doing this" button is a good idea? How does anyone come to the conclusion that this will increase their ad revenue/interaction/readability/whatever metric they want to measure? I'm fascinated by what they think will be their reader's reaction to this. Did they do any research? If so, who did they pick as subjects? Does anyone like having a website play video automatically?
- mattmoose21 5y agoFirefox has a feature where you can block audio/audio&video from autoplaying, works really well.
- sodality2 5y agoThat's enabled by default, on all major browsers, I'm fairly certain. Unless you click or have autoplayed in the past from that site it's a policy to not allow autoplaying video/audio unless the video is muted (<video> tag specifically)
- marcus_holmes 5y agoAs far as I'm aware I've never allowed anything to autoplay video. If a site has video on it then I immediately try to mute/stop it (hence my frustration with this site where there doesn't appear to be any way of stopping the video. I ended up closing the tab).
- sodality2 5y agoI'd suspect you clicked on something and they have `onclick=play()` or something.
- pupppet 5y ago> After another 10 minutes, my heart started to race; still nothing. This one line of faux drama and true ignorance perfectly illustrates what’s wrong with journalism today.