4 ms·

Texas man claims 'Find My' glitch makes people think he stole their phones

43 points by toss1 4y ago

creatonez 4y ago
The perfect cover story for someone who steals hundreds of phones from people!
netsharc 4y ago
Similar to https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/10/lawsuit-how-a-quiet-kansas-home-wound-up-with-600-million-ip-addresses-and-a-world-of-trouble/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/1... / https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-m...
millzlane 4y ago
Maybe it's his neighbor.
badlucklottery 4y ago
Countdown until someone brings a gun to this guy's house to "get their phone back".
aaron695 4y ago
Their photo is badly reacted (Not hard to OSINT without the street names, just makes it easier) The real location probably is in a park, but it's marked as the last house near the park, this is not OP's house. The text address it gives is OP's Nothing existed 5 years ago in the locations. Given that you'd guess it's a mis-match of data when it used to be a field and now it's houses and a park.
qamorgan 4y ago
There was a great episode of Reply All about this: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hodm https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hodm
runjake 4y ago
I know what this guy is going through. My house (actually just out in front) is some sort of default location for Find My in my small town, so the Sheriff Dept used to show up on occasion looking for an iPad or an iPhone — occasionally with really angry victims standing in the background. Yes, I have a bunch of iPads in my house. No, none of them are yours. If any Apple people are listening, I’d love to get this default location moved about 30 feet to the southwest.
- neilalexander 4y ago
  I would be willing to bet that this is something to do with a nearby Wi-Fi network that either has a duplicate BSSID to some other network, or has at some point been physically moved, confusing the Wi-Fi geolocation of nearby devices.
- mcv 4y ago
  And it's not like this is some unexpected side effect. Many years ago, there was already a story about people showing up at some farm in Kansas that happened to be what geolocation services considered the center of the US, and therefore the default location of any device of which they only knew it was in the US. Geolocation services should not give specific coordinates if they don't know where something is. Give a range that makes clear how uncertain the location is. And these sort of "Find My" services need to make clear that the location they're giving is probably not the location where your device is. It's basically making false accusations, and that can be incredibly dangerous.
  - neilalexander 4y ago
    > Give a range that makes clear how uncertain the location is. In fairness to Find My, it tries to do this already. A light blue circle surrounding the item shows the estimated precision of the location. I suspect there are people that don't interpret it that way and instead just go to where the icon in the centre of the circle is.
    - toss1 4y ago
moi2388 4y ago
Isn’t this one of those situations where, if they can’t find or resolve the IP to a geo location they place it at a random place, usually in the middle of the ocean? I recall there being more issues like this with different companies.
- rpaddock 4y ago
  "Null Island" is a ocean buoy at zero-latitude/zero-longitude in the Gulf of Guinea off the west cost of Africa. This an odd case of dereferencing a NULL Pointer. Some Apps default to this valid physical location (It has become a tourist destination for the brave or foolish) leading to strange directions and distance calculations. If need to have a default make sure it is not a valid location such as using +91 or -181 (out of range values).
  - fatnoah 4y ago
    Facebook used to (still does?) have an easter egg on their map depicting NULL island: https://twitter.com/chris_whong/status/1359126193413488645 https://twitter.com/chris_whong/status/1359126193413488645 If you look closely, it strongly resembles another island: https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/3 https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/3
throwaway010623 4y ago
If I ever make something similar, I'll place the default location over a police station to avoid these situations
- themaninthedark 4y ago
  Cue the stories of, the police stole my whatever8 and now they won't give it back. I contacted a lawyer but they won't help, the entire system is corrupt. Instead, make the default location either the center of the Pentagon, the White House or for fun, the middle of the reflecting pool in DC. Or more fun the IRS HQ or NSA HQ.
- creatonez 4y ago
  Preferably, just make absolutely sure that there is no "default location" under any circumstances. Make invalid states unrepresentable.

43 points by toss1 4y ago

The perfect cover story for someone who steals hundreds of phones from people!

Similar to https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/10/lawsuit-how-a-quiet-kansas-home-wound-up-with-600-million-ip-addresses-and-a-world-of-trouble/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/1... / https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-m...

millzlane 4y ago

Maybe it's his neighbor.

badlucklottery 4y ago

Countdown until someone brings a gun to this guy's house to "get their phone back".

aaron695 4y ago

Their photo is badly reacted (Not hard to OSINT without the street names, just makes it easier) The real location probably is in a park, but it's marked as the last house near the park, this is not OP's house. The text address it gives is OP's Nothing existed 5 years ago in the locations. Given that you'd guess it's a mis-match of data when it used to be a field and now it's houses and a park.

qamorgan 4y ago

There was a great episode of Reply All about this: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hodm https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hodm

runjake 4y ago

I know what this guy is going through. My house (actually just out in front) is some sort of default location for Find My in my small town, so the Sheriff Dept used to show up on occasion looking for an iPad or an iPhone — occasionally with really angry victims standing in the background. Yes, I have a bunch of iPads in my house. No, none of them are yours. If any Apple people are listening, I’d love to get this default location moved about 30 feet to the southwest.

neilalexander 4y ago
I would be willing to bet that this is something to do with a nearby Wi-Fi network that either has a duplicate BSSID to some other network, or has at some point been physically moved, confusing the Wi-Fi geolocation of nearby devices.
mcv 4y ago
And it's not like this is some unexpected side effect. Many years ago, there was already a story about people showing up at some farm in Kansas that happened to be what geolocation services considered the center of the US, and therefore the default location of any device of which they only knew it was in the US. Geolocation services should not give specific coordinates if they don't know where something is. Give a range that makes clear how uncertain the location is. And these sort of "Find My" services need to make clear that the location they're giving is probably not the location where your device is. It's basically making false accusations, and that can be incredibly dangerous.
- neilalexander 4y ago
  > Give a range that makes clear how uncertain the location is. In fairness to Find My, it tries to do this already. A light blue circle surrounding the item shows the estimated precision of the location. I suspect there are people that don't interpret it that way and instead just go to where the icon in the centre of the circle is.
  - toss1 4y ago

moi2388 4y ago

Isn’t this one of those situations where, if they can’t find or resolve the IP to a geo location they place it at a random place, usually in the middle of the ocean? I recall there being more issues like this with different companies.

rpaddock 4y ago
"Null Island" is a ocean buoy at zero-latitude/zero-longitude in the Gulf of Guinea off the west cost of Africa. This an odd case of dereferencing a NULL Pointer. Some Apps default to this valid physical location (It has become a tourist destination for the brave or foolish) leading to strange directions and distance calculations. If need to have a default make sure it is not a valid location such as using +91 or -181 (out of range values).
- fatnoah 4y ago
  Facebook used to (still does?) have an easter egg on their map depicting NULL island: https://twitter.com/chris_whong/status/1359126193413488645 https://twitter.com/chris_whong/status/1359126193413488645 If you look closely, it strongly resembles another island: https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/3 https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/3

throwaway010623 4y ago

If I ever make something similar, I'll place the default location over a police station to avoid these situations

themaninthedark 4y ago
Cue the stories of, the police stole my whatever8 and now they won't give it back. I contacted a lawyer but they won't help, the entire system is corrupt. Instead, make the default location either the center of the Pentagon, the White House or for fun, the middle of the reflecting pool in DC. Or more fun the IRS HQ or NSA HQ.
creatonez 4y ago
Preferably, just make absolutely sure that there is no "default location" under any circumstances. Make invalid states unrepresentable.