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Woman accused of tracking boyfriend with Apple AirTag, killing him with car
- tr1ll10nb1ll 4y agoPaywalled. Is there a link without the paywall? I used to have 12ft.io but that stopped working too.
- nope96 4y agohttps://archive.ph/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/11/apple-airtag-murder-boyfriend-indianapolis-morris/ https://archive.ph/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/202...
- nsonha 4y ago
- djmips 4y agoIf you wanted to make a tasteless joke about it you should have said car since that was the weapon used. But this wasn't a mass killing, this was a homicide due to jealousy. It wouldn't even be noteworthy if there wasn't an airtag involved.
- nsonha 4y agono one was talking about cars, or guns. Article is about airtag, my joke is about airtag and I was making the point about airtag.
- thatswrong0 4y agoFrom what I can tell based on the news coverage, GPS trackers didn't exist before AirTags. But seriously though, this does seem like the kind of thing Apple and Google should collaborate on and establish a standard so that any mobile operating system can notify people of unwanted trackers without requiring the installation of an app.
- witheld 4y agoThese aren’t GPS trackers though- GPS trackers are expensive, use a considerable amount of power, and require subscription fees to a service provider. An AirTag is a dumb BLE chip that screams occasionally, and piggybacks off everyone’s iPhones which already have both GPS and cell subscriptions.
- briandear 4y agoApple does notify you of Air tags near you that aren’t yours.
- gnicholas 4y agoNot if you're on Android and haven't installed the Tracker Detect app from Apple.
- josephcsible 4y agoEven if you have, it still doesn't notify you. You have to open the app manually whenever you want to check for them.
- gnicholas 4y agoI don't have an Android so can't verify this, but CNET makes it sound like the app scans automatically: > If Tracker Detect notices an AirTag that's been following you for at least 10 minutes, the app will then allow you to play a sound from the AirTag so that you can more easily find the physical tracker. [1] 1: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/how-to-tell-if-an-airtag-is-tracking-your-location-on-android/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/how-to-tell-if-an-airtag-is...
- celsoazevedo 4y agoI use Android and tested the official app. It doesn't warn you. You need to open the app and perform a manual scan. There's an open source app called AirGuard that runs/scans in the background and sends you a notification if they detect "tracking". It drains some battery, but works okay.
- pryce 4y agoFor those wanting to understand the wider implications of this, Eva Galperin over at the EFF has been trying to raise awareness against stalkerware for a while. She cofounded the Coalition Against Stalkerware [1] and has a TED talk here [2]. I suspect, sadly, that we're going to see a lot more of this in future. [1] https://stopstalkerware.org https://stopstalkerware.org [2] https://www.ted.com/talks/eva_galperin_what_you_need_to_know_about_stalkerware https://www.ted.com/talks/eva_galperin_what_you_need_to_know...
- quanto 4y agoWhenever some AirTag news come up, I see the argument that GPS trackers had existed for a while, and they could be purchased readily through AliExpress. The argument implies that additional threat posed by the prevalence of AirTag is non-existent as the threat model had existed before. This argument misses the point that to a non-technically-minded consumer, AirTag made stalking significantly easier not only on a technical ground (Apple's familiar UIUX), but also on an emotional ground -- Apple is an admired premium brand, and instead of buying some sketchy equipment from a no-name seller, one can walk into a pleasantly appointed Apple store and pick an AirTag on a coffee break. It makes the whole experience _feel_ more legitimate and kosher, if not pleasant. Accessibility of a tool whether on technical, emotional, or legal grounds makes material difference in adoption and usage of said tool.
- avindroth 4y agoI agree with everything up until “A serious crime suddenly becomes a hip experience.” I think that’s taking it a bit too far (and demonizing Apple a bit).
- quanto 4y agoGood feedback. Took out my hyperbole. Thank you. No intention to demonize Apple in any case.
- axg11 4y agoTo be honest, I was always on the “AirTags are harmless” side until reading your perspective. You are probably right that making the UX so simple and coming from a trusted brand will enable many more people to misuse the technology. Ultimately, I think it comes down to the question: is this harmful enough that we should regulate it? Answering that involves weighing the benefits against the harms. AirTags have plenty of legitimate uses and benefits. Stories such as this article show a very real downside to the technology, but isolated stories are not a great way to make an evaluation. Doom, gloom and death will always make a more compelling story than a million people saving 5 minutes finding their keys.
- 4y ago
- gnicholas 4y agoSounds like the victim and perpetrator lived together. What sort of publicity would this story get if she had turned on Find Friends on his phone and shared his location with her?
- swatcoder 4y agoI’m not inclined to do the legwork to prove it, but I’d be shocked if there weren’t stories exactly like this in the first couple years after Find Friends rolled out. It was certainly a concern that people had, and modern news is kinda built to validate concern whenever it can.
- giaour 4y agoDon't users have to opt in to Find Friends? There also feels like a huge difference between your personal device tracking you and that same device tracking anyone who happens to walk by. The dystopian aspect of AirTags is how they repurpose existing Apple devices to create a surveillance network.
- gnicholas 4y agoYeah, but the point is that if they lived together, there's a very good chance that she had the password to his phone, or had access to it when it was unlocked.
- giaour 4y agoHe could always temporarily disable location reporting, turn off his phone, or just not take it with him if he didn't want to be tracked during a certain time. There's no equivalent option with AirTags, since they use ambient devices and can be carried without the bearer's knowledge. I understand what you're trying to argue, but I just don't see an equivalence here in terms of stalker enablement.
- Aeolun 4y agoHonestly, I think the problem here is the girl is crazy, not that she found her boyfriend using an airtag.
- Markoff 4y agoagreed, "let's ban kitchen knives and cars"
- IYasha 4y ago"Let's ban men - they're potential rapists!"
- BurningFrog 4y ago"AirTags don't kill people. People kill people!"
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- devoutsalsa 4y agoApparently people with AirTags kill people.
- gouggoug 4y agoWell, except that in this case the statement holds true. It’d take a considerable amount of force to kill someone with an AirTag.
- SilasX 4y ago
- neilv 4y agoWhen AirTag launched, the PR messaging was that it couldn't be used for this purpose.
- qgin 4y agoIt’s harder to use AirTags for this than other existing trackers. The tag will eventually start beeping if it’s traveling away from the owner. If you have an iPhone, you’ll get notified that a random AirTag is traveling with you.
- incomplete 4y agohttps://archive.ph/JYKF1 https://archive.ph/JYKF1
- hydroid7 4y agoIn F-Droid there is an app against tracking with air tags. https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
- IYasha 4y agoIt is, basically, a simple BLE scanner which remembers tracker IDs and alerts user if some are sticking around for too long. sigh I wish there was a rel "radar" app which could tell the signal source direction! Theoretically, this should be possible since all modern devices have multiple (MIMO) antennas.