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AirGuard: Protect yourself from being tracked by AirTags and Find My accessories
- akomtu 5y agoLegislation is the proper protection here.
- hughes 5y agoIs there a specific policy you think should be legislated that would prevent unwanted tracking?
- akomtu 5y agoA blanket ban on hoarding, storing and selling personal data for any purposes other than natsec. Basically, treat personal data like nuclear materials in the laws.
- smoldesu 5y agoI wasn't onboard at first, but I actually think that's a pretty reasonable take to have on it. Apple should be allowed to implement Find My, but only as an open standard that other manufacturers can implement so they can also have safety features. Simply notifying every iPhone isn't going to stop someone from putting it in a kid's backpack, tracking your vehicle, or any other obvious edge case. There are lots of solutions here, but all of them involve Apple tipping their hand: something they've vehemently opposed in the past.
- aeontech 5y agoAs of spring 2021 they actually opened up the Find My spec for third party manufacturers [1] - that’s how those electronic bikes and headphones can have built-in Find My tracking now. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/find-my/ https://developer.apple.com/find-my/
- crooked-v 5y agoHow does that relate to AirTags (or similar devices, like Tile)? The companies that make these trackers aren't selling the data to anyone external, only displaying it to the person who bought the device.
- akomtu 5y agoTracking someone like that would be a felony, ideally, with an order to stop operations for the company who's facilitating it. Using my analogy above, that's like dropping a bag with nuclear waste into someone's pocket.
- dylan604 5y agoCouldn't this fall under stalking legislation?
- crooked-v 5y ago> with an order to stop operations for the company who's facilitating it So, you want to shut down all manufacturers of phones, GPS devices, and Bluetooth devices? Because that's what you're asking for here.
- psychometry 5y agoThat should be a clear indication your analogy is garbage...
- gjs278 5y agostop posting
- cascom 5y agoCivil and commercial penalties would be a start
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- orangepanda 5y agoKidnapping is already illegal. Curious, it still happens
- akomtu 5y agoName one company in the US that's built business around kidnapping.
- randyrand 5y agoI’d like protection against devices not made by US companies too
- hef19898 5y agoWell, since Apple isn't owning its own phone production, that would have interesting consequences, wouldn't it?
- johnhenry 5y agoRight Direction (http://www.rdas.net/ http://www.rdas.net/)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- KingMachiavelli 5y agoThe tracking using Airtags has very little to do with Apple or any entity that could be controlled via legislation. Airtags themselves don't allow a non-owner to access location data anyway. The tracking via Airtags is just putting a device on someone's person without their knowledge. That is already illegal but unless you know a crime has been committed you are SOL.
- katbyte 5y agoNot to mention you can detect an airtag, cellular devices your out of luck
- jiveturkey 5y agoOf course you can detect a cellular device. You mean, can't detect with an app on your phone.
- bloodyplonker22 5y agoGovernment intervention is not the answer to everything. It is slow and inefficient.
- justblender 5y ago>If a devices follows you, you will get a notification in less than an hour! Not sure if this is right for me, my wife could cheat on me faster.
- KingMachiavelli 5y agoPretty cool but why does it have to be limited to AirTag or any specific devices? It would be easy to expand it to keep track of any nearby Bluetooth device and a corresponding whitelist. (Or do AirTag devices rotate Bluetooth MACs?) Airtags are just one implementation of a Bluetooth transmitter and a long life battery but anyone could probably build a similar device dedicated to tracking with off the shelf parts.
- tinus_hn 5y agoAirTags, like all Apple devices, use randomized Bluetooth addresses, otherwise they allow scanners to follow their users location over time.
- ollien 5y agoI don't think that's an Apple thing, but rather a BLE thing, isn't it (though technically opt-in)? https://www.bluetooth.com/blog/bluetooth-technology-protecting-your-privacy/ https://www.bluetooth.com/blog/bluetooth-technology-protecti...
- SwaraLink 5y agoPrivate resolvable addresses are a BLE thing, but very few devices (aside from Apple products and Android phones) actually use them. It’s a shame, really, because most embedded BLE stacks support the feature. My company is working on a platform to make BLE product development much easier than it is today, and also to improve the quality of BLE products. We plan to make privacy a standard feature.
- jeroenhd 5y agoAirtags are the only devices (that I know of) that can leverage a worldwide network of iPhones to transmit their location rather than a power intensive LTE or GSM link. They also don't require any external antennae for location determination like those GPS trackers stalkers use. Those features make make AirTags more practical for any use, good or bad. They do rotate Bluetooth MAC addresses so only you and Apple can follow where the tag has been, supposedly. Furthermore, if your target has an iPhone, you can partially leverage their phone against them. Of course Apple saw this coming and added a warning. If you're on Android you'll have to rely on apps like these (or the theoretical app Apple promised at some point) to prevent AirStalking Tile has offered a similar mechanism for years but the lack of a worldwide network of automatic data collection points makes their network a lot less useful for good or bad people.
- eatbitseveryday 5y agoThis seems to notify you of nearby tags but does not disable them in some way.
- daniel-thompson 5y agoHow would an app on device A disable device B?
- KingMachiavelli 5y agoAirtags do allow non-owner devices to disable some functionality such as turning off the alarm. I doubt they let you turn off the tracking since that would completely defeat the anti-theft aspect of Airtags.
- rootusrootus 5y ago> I doubt they let you turn off the tracking I'm not sure how they would even do that in the first place, since the AirTag doesn't track anything.
- KingMachiavelli 5y agoI meant it could let you turn the device 'off'? Sure the AirTag isn't the device doing the tracking but if it isn't broadcasting itself then other devices can track it.
- judge2020 5y agoAlthough, if you find one, it's trivial to remove the battery or smash it with a hammer.
- foxpurple 5y agoRemoving the battery is the official way of turning them off. If the anti stalker mode activates on your iPhone. It shows an animation of how to twist and remove the battery.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago> With the app you can play a sound on AirTags and find it easily. I wonder how it does that. Unauthenticated BLE characteristic? This would imply anyone could force an arbitrary AirTag to make a sound. Obvious application: force all AirTags nearby to keep making sounds.
- shreddit 5y agoSeems so, there’s a constant named AIR_TAG_SOUND_CHARACTERISTIC with this value: 7DFC9001-7D1C-4951-86AA-8D9728F8D66C
- ollien 5y agoThe small evil part of me wants to extract this part of the source and just bring my phone onto public transit for a while to see what happens.
- Scoundreller 5y agoYou don’t AirDrop cat photos to people at mass gatherings?
- dhosek 5y agoPre pandemic I would change my phone name to cta lemur and send lemur pics to people on the “L”. I’ve been on public transit twice since March 13th 2020 and there’s not enough people to get away with this anymore.
- danieldk 5y agoIsn't the default AirDrop setting to receive from people in your contact list only? (It was on my Mac and iPhone.) Probably some people change the configuration to take AirDrops from everyone, but I'd expect that to be a small minority.
- jsudi 5y ago
- azinman2 5y ago> Our goal is to protect privacy and to find out how many people are opposed to tracking. Asking how many ppl are opposed to tracking is a silly question that won’t get you anywhere — it’s answer in a vacuum doesn’t make sense as it needs to be contextualized. “Are you ok with google seeing your IP so they can sell you ads to give you free YouTube” is an example of context where people see trade offs. Most people won’t understand the full spectrum of what’s going on, and if it all in the end results in just ads, many are fine with that as long as they’re getting free stuff with it. The bigger questions on societal level trade offs shouldn’t be answered by lay people but rather regulation in the name of public interest.
- bogwog 5y agoGoogle doesn't just "see your IP" to sell you ads. They collect a lot more information about you than that, so I don't know why you consider your question to be more useful than the one you quoted. Neither one provides enough information for the average person to give an informed answer. They're both equally biased/leading, but in opposite directions.
- jounker 5y agoGreat. So you just made an app that helps bike thieves find the airtag hidden in my bicycle.
- bogwog 5y agoWhy would you assume the bike thief doesn't have an iPhone?
- withinboredom 5y agoBecause the bad guys never have one in the movies /s
- daniel_iversen 5y agoFuture movie spoilers alert! And it’s actually true isn’t it! :-) Apple won’t let bad guys use their hardware; https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/apple-wont-let-bad-guys-use-iphones-in-movies-says-knives-out-director.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/apple-wont-let-bad-guys-use-...
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThat is nonsense. Legally, Apple can do nothing if a movie maker wants to go out and buy an Apple product and show a bad guy using their products. That director is probably referring agreements the movie maker made with Apple in exchange for free Apple devices to use in the movies. Or he is trying to misdirect for the next movie he is making.
- daniel_iversen 5y agoOf course it wouldn’t be anything legal, most likely just to do with the free supply of hardware as you suggested!
- withinboredom 5y agoThe legalities of it probably revolve around the Apple trademark and nothing to do with the hardware.
- paxys 5y agoI understand using it for keys and stuff, but attaching airtags to valuables and carrying them out in public has to be the stupidest idea ever. Apps like these are soon going to turn them into "steal me!" beacons.
- psychometry 5y agoPlease explain to me how a thief is going to use the existence of this tech to enable theft.
- schrodinger 5y agoI think their point is that knowing there’s an air tag on something nearby indicates it’s probably something of value worth stealing.
- acdha 5y agoHow often is that something otherwise invisible, however? Like if I put one on my bike are there really many thieves who would otherwise not have considered it? I’m sure there are some small things which are relatively covert but it seems like a relatively uncommon situation.
- jedberg 5y agoFeel free to steal my daughter's water bottle. I don't track it because it's valuable, I track it because she's irresponsible.
- nikau 5y agoUnlike my eyeballs that can see an expensive bike in the range of the airtag transmission.
- foxpurple 5y agoAlmost all of the tags are on people’s keys which hold close to no value
- Jcowell 5y ago
- bogwog 5y agoThis is something Apple should be providing themselves (edit: for Android). They already have "Apple TV", "Apple Music", and a "Move to iOS" app. Is it really so much to ask for a stalking prevention app?
- hypothesis 5y agoI can see those cheery iStalking ads already, telling you to get anti-stalking subscription. And, of course, for adventurous devs they’re going to introduce a StalkingKit!
- judge2020 5y agoThis already is the case. iOS alerts you of any airtag it detects for a long enough time.
- celsoazevedo 5y agoSince this app is for Android and the Apple apps mentioned by the parent comment are for Android, I think he's saying Apple should be the ones providing their own AirTag app for Android, not university students.
- dotancohen 5y agoI would far prefer that the app be developed by a third-party, not Apple. But Apple's spec that the app uses should be open (which I believe is in fact the case).
- ajdude 5y agoApple should provide a “find my” app on android that not only detects rouge airtags but lets you participate in tracking your, and other’s, airtags like an iPhone can.
- foxpurple 5y agoThis has to be at the OS level or it will either be killed by the OS or ruin your battery life.
- mrpoopy 5y agoSo if someone steals my air tagged device they can just turn it off. Nice
- Thorrez 5y agoI think the marketed goal of AirTag isn't to prevent theft, it's to help find lost (but not stolen) objects, like if you left your keys somewhere.
- kelnos 5y agoIf someone steals your AirTagged device, after it's away from whatever you paired it with for a while, it'll start beeping, which will quickly alert the thief that they need to find the AirTag and throw it out. So I don't think AirTags were meant to deter theft; I think they're just there to help people find stuff they've misplaced.
- eh9 5y agoDoes Apple have any incentives to release a first party tool to handle this? There’s precedent for Apple releasing Android tools and if anything should get sherlocked it’s this.
- Causality1 5y agoDon't AirTags already start beeping if they spend too much time around a single phone other than their owner's?
- joeguilmette 5y agoYup. When other people get into my truck the AirTag in the glove box beeps.