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This is great and it came up at dinner last night which is kind of weird. Had the odd experience of going to a retreat where everyone sat listening to speakers

This is great and it came up at dinner last night which is kind of weird. Had the odd experience of going to a retreat where everyone sat listening to speakers, and then all went to lunch, and then back to the speakers, then all to dinner, then back to the speakers. And my iPhone popped up an alert that there was an airtag following me. (It wasn't of course it was an airtag in another attendee's bag to track their bag which they had with them, near me kind of randomly, but being driven by the same forces of movement :-)).

larsnystrom 2y ago
I thought such notices wouldn’t appear as long as the AirTag owner’s iPhone was also near the AirTag? Maybe their battery died though.
- hunter2_ 2y ago
  My wife fitted her luggage with AirTags but doesn't have an iPhone (just an iPad, normally turned off). The alerts I get are maddening, but I'd rather receive them than disable all alerting...
kstrauser 2y ago
My understanding is you should only get the notification if the tag isn't with its owner. That's how it plays out in my personal experience. Back when AirTags were completely broken and didn't support family sharing, I'd get notified if I had my wife's car keys with me only when she wasn't with me, i.e. because I grabbed hers to run a quick errand. This notification would be utterly useless if that were no longer the case: you'd spend half your time on a flight or bus ride closing the unwanted and unhelpful popups.
- rsstack 2y ago
  I use AirPods Pro but an Android phone. My girlfriend and friends we hung out with would complain about these, so I eventually found a way to turn off "Find my device" on the AirPods by connecting them to my iPad. I now can't track them but also people aren't mad at me for "tracking" them.
  - kstrauser 2y ago
    Huh, good point that I hadn’t considered.
  - beeboobaa3 2y ago
    Interesting. I've had Apple users recommend AirPods to me before, but I don't own any Apple devices so I already had a feeling it wouldn't work out. Would be insane if they would constantly be generating alerts on others their iPhones.
    - rsstack 2y ago
      I think if you use them out of the box, they won't generate the alerts. If I understand Apple's data model correctly, once I paired them to my iPad for the first time, they were enrolled to my iCloud account, and then the tracking system was enabled.
      - beeboobaa3 2y ago
        So I'm screwed if an iPhone user ever pairs with my headphones, i.e. when I lend them to them?
        rsstack 2y ago
        Ew, why would you lend in-ear headphones to anyone?
        beeboobaa3 2y ago
        Just wondering if I understand the Apple ecosystem correctly.
- lozaning 2y ago
  I took amtrak from Chicago to DC recently and my phone was constantly trying to tell me I was being followed/tracked cause someone else in the sleeper car had an airtag.
  - kstrauser 2y ago
    If that happens again, choose the option to stop notifying you about that specific tag. (Also, it’s possible someone had slipped a tag into that person’s luggage without their knowledge.)
    - jtbayly 2y ago
      It sounds like if it happens again, they can just choose to disable the AirTag completely?
      - kstrauser 2y ago
        Not if it's another person's. Edit: I think I misread that. When you see an AirTag popup, you can choose to ignore it for the day or forever. That's from my recollection. I haven't seen one in ages.
        jtbayly 2y ago
        "iPhone can view the tracker’s identifier, have the tracker play a sound to help locate it, and access instructions to disable it." I wonder if that last bit requires physical access to the tracker?
        Jtsummers 2y ago
        3.13. Disablement The accessory SHALL have a way to be disabled such that its future locations cannot be seen by its owner. Disablement SHALL be done via some physical action (e.g., button press, gesture, removal of battery, etc.). Ledvina, et al. Expires 22 June 2024 [Page 26] Internet-Draft Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers December 2023 3.13.1. Disablement instructions The accessory manufacturer SHALL provide both a text description of how to disable the accessory as well as a visual depiction (e.g. image, diagram, animation, etc.) that MUST be available when the platform is online and OPTIONALLY when offline. Disablement procedure or instructions CAN change with accessory firmware updates. These are provided as part of the onboarding process (Section 7). https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-detecting-unwanted-location-trackers/01/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-detecting-unwanted-lo... Yes. Physical access would likely be needed for most of these devices and would be sufficient for satisfying the RFC, based on the examples in section 3.13. So you might get a notification of a device "following" you because I have a tracker in my bag but no phone (or my phone is off, perhaps; or maybe it's just malfunctioning and mis-reporting as happens sometimes). You play the sound and find out it's in the bag underneath your seat on the bus, but that's my bag. You could attempt to rifle through it and take my tracker and disable it, but I'd probably stop you.
- JoBrad 2y ago
  I get notifications about my daughter’s AirPods following me, when she is with me. My daughter is part of my Apple Family plan, and the AirPods show up in my Find My devices. I thought this article was about handling those notifications, at first.
- throwaway290 2y ago
  > you should only get the notification if the tag isn't with its owner My airtag occasionally thinks it's not with me and apple watch wakes me up in the middle of the night even though my bag is in the next room of this tiny flat.
bryanlarsen 2y ago
Try chaperoning a bunch of kids on a field trip. Half of them have trackers attached to their backpacks, so you get a bunch of those notifications.
- datavirtue 2y ago
  Yeah, I'm still trying to make sense of this, at all. Lots of technobable flying around and no big picture talk. Why the fuck would Google and Apple work together on this AND trash their tech at the same time. Feels like they are trying to stave off regulation. Someone will find a way around this. It's too fun of a hack to go unanswered for more than a week. Now only the criminals will have this physical tracking ability (well,them and Apple+Google).

larsnystrom 2y ago

I thought such notices wouldn’t appear as long as the AirTag owner’s iPhone was also near the AirTag? Maybe their battery died though.

hunter2_ 2y ago
My wife fitted her luggage with AirTags but doesn't have an iPhone (just an iPad, normally turned off). The alerts I get are maddening, but I'd rather receive them than disable all alerting...

kstrauser 2y ago

My understanding is you should only get the notification if the tag isn't with its owner. That's how it plays out in my personal experience. Back when AirTags were completely broken and didn't support family sharing, I'd get notified if I had my wife's car keys with me only when she wasn't with me, i.e. because I grabbed hers to run a quick errand. This notification would be utterly useless if that were no longer the case: you'd spend half your time on a flight or bus ride closing the unwanted and unhelpful popups.

rsstack 2y ago
I use AirPods Pro but an Android phone. My girlfriend and friends we hung out with would complain about these, so I eventually found a way to turn off "Find my device" on the AirPods by connecting them to my iPad. I now can't track them but also people aren't mad at me for "tracking" them.
- kstrauser 2y ago
  Huh, good point that I hadn’t considered.
- beeboobaa3 2y ago
  Interesting. I've had Apple users recommend AirPods to me before, but I don't own any Apple devices so I already had a feeling it wouldn't work out. Would be insane if they would constantly be generating alerts on others their iPhones.
  - rsstack 2y ago
    I think if you use them out of the box, they won't generate the alerts. If I understand Apple's data model correctly, once I paired them to my iPad for the first time, they were enrolled to my iCloud account, and then the tracking system was enabled.
    - beeboobaa3 2y ago
      So I'm screwed if an iPhone user ever pairs with my headphones, i.e. when I lend them to them?
      - rsstack 2y ago
        Ew, why would you lend in-ear headphones to anyone?
        beeboobaa3 2y ago
        Just wondering if I understand the Apple ecosystem correctly.
lozaning 2y ago
I took amtrak from Chicago to DC recently and my phone was constantly trying to tell me I was being followed/tracked cause someone else in the sleeper car had an airtag.
- kstrauser 2y ago
  If that happens again, choose the option to stop notifying you about that specific tag. (Also, it’s possible someone had slipped a tag into that person’s luggage without their knowledge.)
  - jtbayly 2y ago
    It sounds like if it happens again, they can just choose to disable the AirTag completely?
    - kstrauser 2y ago
      Not if it's another person's. Edit: I think I misread that. When you see an AirTag popup, you can choose to ignore it for the day or forever. That's from my recollection. I haven't seen one in ages.
      - jtbayly 2y ago
        "iPhone can view the tracker’s identifier, have the tracker play a sound to help locate it, and access instructions to disable it." I wonder if that last bit requires physical access to the tracker?
        Jtsummers 2y ago
        3.13. Disablement The accessory SHALL have a way to be disabled such that its future locations cannot be seen by its owner. Disablement SHALL be done via some physical action (e.g., button press, gesture, removal of battery, etc.). Ledvina, et al. Expires 22 June 2024 [Page 26] Internet-Draft Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers December 2023 3.13.1. Disablement instructions The accessory manufacturer SHALL provide both a text description of how to disable the accessory as well as a visual depiction (e.g. image, diagram, animation, etc.) that MUST be available when the platform is online and OPTIONALLY when offline. Disablement procedure or instructions CAN change with accessory firmware updates. These are provided as part of the onboarding process (Section 7). https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-detecting-unwanted-location-trackers/01/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-detecting-unwanted-lo... Yes. Physical access would likely be needed for most of these devices and would be sufficient for satisfying the RFC, based on the examples in section 3.13. So you might get a notification of a device "following" you because I have a tracker in my bag but no phone (or my phone is off, perhaps; or maybe it's just malfunctioning and mis-reporting as happens sometimes). You play the sound and find out it's in the bag underneath your seat on the bus, but that's my bag. You could attempt to rifle through it and take my tracker and disable it, but I'd probably stop you.
JoBrad 2y ago
I get notifications about my daughter’s AirPods following me, when she is with me. My daughter is part of my Apple Family plan, and the AirPods show up in my Find My devices. I thought this article was about handling those notifications, at first.
throwaway290 2y ago
> you should only get the notification if the tag isn't with its owner My airtag occasionally thinks it's not with me and apple watch wakes me up in the middle of the night even though my bag is in the next room of this tiny flat.

bryanlarsen 2y ago

Try chaperoning a bunch of kids on a field trip. Half of them have trackers attached to their backpacks, so you get a bunch of those notifications.

datavirtue 2y ago
Yeah, I'm still trying to make sense of this, at all. Lots of technobable flying around and no big picture talk. Why the fuck would Google and Apple work together on this AND trash their tech at the same time. Feels like they are trying to stave off regulation. Someone will find a way around this. It's too fun of a hack to go unanswered for more than a week. Now only the criminals will have this physical tracking ability (well,them and Apple+Google).