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Apple is surely against tracking and in favor of opt-ins for privacy... as long as it's the competitors' products and not its own.
by Daishiman 5y ago
Apple is surely against tracking and in favor of opt-ins for privacy... as long as it's the competitors' products and not its own.
- samatman 5y agoI don't really think either of those things apply here, although the implementation is pretty crucial. AirTags have some protections against using them to track people, and the AirTag network doesn't appear to leak any private information. That last part could be completely wrong, for all we know: it relies on the software to be correct. The whole point of the gizmo is to "track", and I struggle to come up with an improvement to their solution to allowing users to track things but not stalk people. This is being automatically enrolled in some kind of public good, where "public" is the Apple ecosystem. Is that bad? I mean, I don't mind, but offering an opt-out seems... polite, at least?
- daemoon 5y agoIt does let you to opt-out.
- petepete 5y agoStalking people who don't use iOS is fine though. It's a good thing they're not as important.
- fastball 5y agoThe idea that AirTags are much of a step up from what a determined stalker is already using[1] to stalk people is a laughable one. [1] https://www.amazon.com/GPS-Trackers/b?node=617650011 https://www.amazon.com/GPS-Trackers/b?node=617650011
- shkkmo 5y agoThen why do they provide protections against being tracked by them only to iOS users?
- samatman 5y agoHow do you propose they extend this to other platforms?
- jfoster 5y agoWhat would stop them from creating an Android app to notify users if an AirTag seems to be travelling with them?
- samatman 5y agoThey easily could, agreed. They even might? It's not unheard of for Apple to release software on other platforms, however uncommon it might be. It's certainly not the kind of thing they do right at the time of release. I don't imagine you'd get much penetration relative to running it on every device at the OS level, though. Probably rough on the battery running in userspace? It doesn't seem like it solves a problem most people are likely to have.
- shkkmo 5y agoThey didn't try at all. I wouldn't personally sell a device such as this as I believe it is very ethically grey unless you seriously consider mitigation measures that are available to everyone.
- user-the-name 5y agoThey do provide as much protection as they possibly can to those who do not. The device will beep, and it works as an NFC tag to get information about what it is on non-iOS phones.
- jfoster 5y agoThose measures don't sound like they'll be very effective if an AirTag is planted on the underside of a vehicle.
- 5y ago
- isignal 5y agoGPS trackers with LTE radios have battery limitations. AirTags are only communicating with local iPhones so they can be smaller and last longer.
- jaywalk 5y agoNot a whole lot Apple can do about that. The fact that they built it into iOS shows the amount of thought that went into it.
- theshrike79 5y agoSo was stalking people who don't have the Tile app installed fine then? Because they can be used in the exact same way.
- darkarmani 5y ago> The whole point of the gizmo is to "track", and I struggle to come up with an improvement to their solution to allowing users to track things but not stalk people. Let the user block types of devices from using their "find network". And let them block individual devices from using the "find network" through their phone. If everyone could see, every local device, there would be no private tracking.
- samatman 5y agoI don't actually understand what you're proposing here? Sibling comments point out that opting out of the AirTag network is a setting in a given iOS device, which I didn't know, but I don't think that's what you mean.
- the_lonely_road 5y agoVery few people practice consistent logic regarding opt in versus opt out. In nearly every case I’ve observed people are pro opt in for things they don’t like and pro opt out of things do like. Hence the push to make organ donation opt out and privacy invasion opt in. I don’t think there should be an expectation of being consistent, it’s just an observation.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoFunny how in this case, we're talking about two tracking efforts, so it would be expected that both were opt-in to respect our privacy. The difference is that one kind of tracking helps Apple make money, and the other doesn't.
- FabHK 5y agoHow does helping other people find their lost items (with neither Apple nor the "helper" knowing where the item is, now who lost it) infringe on anyone's privacy?
- Daishiman 5y agoHow about if I just don't want Apple collecting data at will or using my device as a private mesh network?
- fastball 5y agoUm, then don't enable "Find My iPhone" when setting up your device??
- theshrike79 5y agoWhat data is Apple collecting? All of the data is anonymised and encrypted so that even Apple can't decrypt it.
- CRConrad 5y agoOne would have thought by now people who get Apple devices should have stopped thinking of them as "my device".
- threeseed 5y agoThis is simply nonsense. Apple asks you every, single time you upgrade your iOS/OSX device to confirm your privacy and telemetry settings. And all of the features they implement are private by design. They use features such as differential privacy to make sure they aren't leaking private data: https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Overview.pdf https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Over...