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For the vast majority of people in the vast majority of situations, it's a very good thing and is ideal behavior. It is only in conspiratorial "but what if nati

For the vast majority of people in the vast majority of situations, it's a very good thing and is ideal behavior. It is only in conspiratorial "but what if nation states are tracking me" noise that this is cast as a bad thing.

smoldesu 5y ago
I personally just think it has a harmful effect on the metaphor of being "off". For the longest time, a device being 'off' was synonymous with being unplugged or unpowered, rendered fully nonfunctional. We worked really hard to build the metaphor of 'sleeping' devices to compliment this, and I think letting Find My run while a device is sleeping is perfectly fine. I worry for the end user though, who now has to tabulate the capabilities of their device in their head every time they power off.
sizzle 5y ago
Big GDP nation states have teams harvesting 0-days around the clock and can go above the law to insider negotiate or bruteforce backdoors for this 'always on' functionality I'd imagine (what company can say no to the highest levels of government interference?), regardless of if it is offered to the public or not as a new 'feature' for their benefit.
SilverRed 5y ago
And for those people, you can turn that setting off. It even warns you about it on the power off screen. If you don't trust the setting to actually turn off, then you shouldn't trust anything about the phone and should smash it up with a hammer.
wrycoder 5y ago
People who attended the 06Jan rally and were not even on the Capitol grounds had their phones tracked. Some of them got a SWAT visit in the wee hours weeks later. It’s not so far fetched. I’ll also mention that Ćhina will find this new feature very helpful and are no doubt grateful.
- fastball 5y ago
  Right, exactly. It's a phone. It's gonna be tracked anyway. This feature is not moving the needle when it comes to how easily you are tracked by a nation state, but it does move the needle when it comes to "finding your lost/stolen phone that is powered off".
olliej 5y ago
The find my implementation is designed to be completely anonymous. As in apple cannot find your phone, it requires your credentials which iirc includes iCloud account and device unlock code.

smoldesu 5y ago

I personally just think it has a harmful effect on the metaphor of being "off". For the longest time, a device being 'off' was synonymous with being unplugged or unpowered, rendered fully nonfunctional. We worked really hard to build the metaphor of 'sleeping' devices to compliment this, and I think letting Find My run while a device is sleeping is perfectly fine. I worry for the end user though, who now has to tabulate the capabilities of their device in their head every time they power off.

sizzle 5y ago

Big GDP nation states have teams harvesting 0-days around the clock and can go above the law to insider negotiate or bruteforce backdoors for this 'always on' functionality I'd imagine (what company can say no to the highest levels of government interference?), regardless of if it is offered to the public or not as a new 'feature' for their benefit.

SilverRed 5y ago

And for those people, you can turn that setting off. It even warns you about it on the power off screen. If you don't trust the setting to actually turn off, then you shouldn't trust anything about the phone and should smash it up with a hammer.

wrycoder 5y ago

People who attended the 06Jan rally and were not even on the Capitol grounds had their phones tracked. Some of them got a SWAT visit in the wee hours weeks later. It’s not so far fetched. I’ll also mention that Ćhina will find this new feature very helpful and are no doubt grateful.

fastball 5y ago
Right, exactly. It's a phone. It's gonna be tracked anyway. This feature is not moving the needle when it comes to how easily you are tracked by a nation state, but it does move the needle when it comes to "finding your lost/stolen phone that is powered off".

olliej 5y ago

The find my implementation is designed to be completely anonymous. As in apple cannot find your phone, it requires your credentials which iirc includes iCloud account and device unlock code.