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I hate this AirTag because besides being pointless (nothing you couldn't do before), it fosters a fear of your neighbor while placing tech companies as your tru

I hate this AirTag because besides being pointless (nothing you couldn't do before), it fosters a fear of your neighbor while placing tech companies as your trusted friends. There's no evidence these, "people have freaked out after finding AirTags hidden in their bags and on their cars" are anything other than just stray airtags their owners would very much like back. Just because police (or journalists for that matter) are helping to foster this environment doesn't matter because most police are technologically illiterate and under-trained, and frankly don't know what they're doing. Google using hidden terms to track your every location is your enemy. Your wife leaving an AirTag in the car is not the enemy. You live in a tech dystopia, not a Liam Neeson film. Nobody is following is following you to QuickCheck to kidnap you. Also, AirTags suck. If you drop one in your friends car and drive around trying to find it you're now (1) effectively a stalker (2) won't find your AirTag if they have Android which kind of defeats the purpose, since these things are supposed to want to be found, and (3) correct me if I'm wrong, but even if someone finds your lost item and doesn't immediately send the police on you -- they have no way to contact you to setup a return of your lost item? You have to go through the police? Why would anyone want that? EDIT: Appearantly Apple says you can give it a message if lost of how to contact you, but no way to message without giving additional contact info, and only if you mark it as lost.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
I disagree. I mean yeah, obviously mistakes are mistakes, but I doubt many people are seriously suspecting anything else than that. However, it seems unusual for people to be carrying around air tags in such a way that they are casually lost. I would guess mistakes aren't THAT common. I would guess domestic abuse is not an uncommon use case of these things. I would also guess that thieves do have an eye for it. You don't need to be Liam Neeson for someone to want to steal your shit. The alert that an air tag is following you mostly negates this. I do agree they don't seem to have much utility on their own
dschep 5y ago
> won't find your AirTag if they have Android which kind of defeats the purpose While they're alone in a car, sure. But as soon as they're around folks with iPhones, they're tracked just fine and will never get the notifications the husband in the article got.

spywaregorilla 5y ago

I disagree. I mean yeah, obviously mistakes are mistakes, but I doubt many people are seriously suspecting anything else than that. However, it seems unusual for people to be carrying around air tags in such a way that they are casually lost. I would guess mistakes aren't THAT common. I would guess domestic abuse is not an uncommon use case of these things. I would also guess that thieves do have an eye for it. You don't need to be Liam Neeson for someone to want to steal your shit. The alert that an air tag is following you mostly negates this. I do agree they don't seem to have much utility on their own

dschep 5y ago

> won't find your AirTag if they have Android which kind of defeats the purpose While they're alone in a car, sure. But as soon as they're around folks with iPhones, they're tracked just fine and will never get the notifications the husband in the article got.