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Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes? I threw one in the trunk of my car (just in case - I ordered a 4-pack and I had a spare one), and every si

Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes? I threw one in the trunk of my car (just in case - I ordered a 4-pack and I had a spare one), and every single time I drive somewhere it chirps loudly when I'm exiting my driveway, making its presence immediately obvious without any delays, and despite my phone being with me in the car.

dmajor2 2y ago
No, they have been rendered useless for that purpose through software updates because of the almost 100% overlap of the use cases of 1) stalking someone 2) and tracking a thief.
- ronsor 2y ago
  Wait until they realize the almost 100% overlap between the camera's use cases of 1) spying on people and 2) recording nature
  - post-it 2y ago
    Nature cameras are relatively hard to conceal (from humans), whereas AirTags are very easy to conceal.
    - theshrike79 2y ago
      They are also very bad for tracking compared to what you can get on Aliexpress/eBay/Amazon (which are the same tbh). For about the same price you can get a device with a SIM card and GPS/GLONASS and _zero_ ways to detect it.
      - post-it 2y ago
        What's the battery life on that though? The appeal of AirTags is that they last a year and work anywhere that has an iPhone nearby.
        theshrike79 2y ago
        Depends on the device. Some are active all the time, some can sleep and only wake up to get their position fix every hour or so. It's not exactly rocket science to adjust the programming. And if you're stalking someone for a year, you'll have ample options to swap the device to a new one with a fresh battery.
      - throwaway2037 2y ago
        Can you give a couple of example products? I am very curious.
- nucleardog 2y ago
  I think you can still thread the needle. The cases are identical except for one situation--if the air tag is difficult to find or remove. If you can't find or remove the air tag, then the option you have left to not be tracked is to separate yourself from the tracked thing. In the case of someone being stalked, that's inconvenient (that doesn't do it justice, but not really important to my point). In the case of someone who stole something, that's actually the desired outcome. Imagine a situation where you get in a car and a few minutes later it says there's an air tag following you. If you're being stalked... you can drive straight to a mechanic who can take all the time they need to find it, take a taxi over to the police and report it, etc. If you just stole that car, now you know you're on the clock. Once someone's looking for you and that vehicle, there's a really good chance they're going to find it. You can take it to a mechanic, but a reputable mechanic might have some questions. You can try a less reputable mechanic, but they're gonna be pissed when the cops come knocking asking about the stolen car sitting over there and you might not be going back there any time soon. So if you can't find and remove the air tag relatively quickly, what options do you have left? Probably makes more sense to abandon the vehicle and try another one with a lower risk of winding up in jail. I _know_ where the air tag is in my suitcase and it would take me tools and ~15 minutes to remove. How long is someone going to spend at that versus just tossing it?
  - to11mtm 2y ago
    TBH your response makes me realize there's possibly a decent use case for bicycles with the right diameter tubing. > You can try a less reputable mechanic, but they're gonna be pissed when the cops come knocking asking about the stolen car sitting over there and you might not be going back there any time soon. So if you can't find and remove the air tag relatively quickly, what options do you have left? Probably makes more sense to abandon the vehicle and try another one with a lower risk of winding up in jail. Depends on the skill of the chop-shop or it's folks and where you are. A fun thought experience would be how much suspicion a flatbed tow truck with some form of faraday cage around the car, below a cover would get from LE. Agree with your general 'deterrent' concept, I think the main challenge a lot of folks run into is getting lazy with placement. Glove/console boxes, the 'pockets' on the back of front seats, are all stupid easy. Technically anything in the interior, probably can be 'found' with sufficient detection capability. No, you put that thing somewhere weird and ideally a PITA to get at. This honestly gives me the idea of finding the right spot in my WRX front headlights to make it not visible; If the spot I'm thinking of will work, they'd literally have to pull off the front bumper to even get at it...
OutOfHere 2y ago
Samsung tracker doesn't have this silly problem.
- lcfcjs6 2y ago
  Samsung make trackers? Are you referring to tile?
  - OutOfHere 2y ago
    > Samsung make trackers? Yes. > Are you referring to tile? No.
  - selcuka 2y ago
    Samsung Galaxy SmartTags: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088244/ https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088244/
  - KomoD 2y ago
    Why would he be referring to Tile when he said Samsung? Samsung has nothing to do with Tile.
carlgreene 2y ago
Yes, but only if you remove the speaker which is well documented on YouTube
- kube-system 2y ago
  Even if you do that they will still notify a thief with a notification on their iPhone.
  - omgwtfbyobbq 2y ago
    I think that's ok though, right? As long as you do a good job placing/hiding it, the thief can't easily find and remove/disable without the speaker.
    - kube-system 2y ago
      How big is your item and how hard is it to search? If you know a bag has an airtag in it, it won't take that long to find.
      - wholinator2 2y ago
        True, a suitcase could be quickly dispatched but you could hide it very very well on something like a car.
        kube-system 2y ago
        Maybe, but is any old car thief on the street going to hang on to a car they know has an airtag in it? They probably were going to joy ride it for the afternoon, maybe commit some other crime, wreck it, and dump it regardless. I have an airtag in my car, but I don't think I'm going to get much value out of it other than finding my car when I forget where I'm parked. If you want to catch a criminal in the act, you usually need to observe surreptitiously or they'll change behavior.
        2y ago
_yb2s 2y ago
There is something wrong with your configuration/setup, it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. I have them on tons of my devices, including my kids personal items that go to school, etc. and they never chirp, and I can and have found items that were misplaced in public locations (but not actually stolen).
- drdaeman 2y ago
  > There is something wrong with your configuration/setup Something is off for sure, but it's not like there are any user-configurable parts here. I literally just threw it in the trunk - and it's not like there's a right and a wrong way to do it. :-) I guess it's because I don't have a garage and my car is parked in a carport, about ~100 feet/~30 meters away from my apartment, so it "normally" doesn't sense my phone "nearby". Then, I suspect, when I walk down and sit in the car (which takes just a minute or two) there is not enough time for it to reconnect with the phone and realize the owner is around. Because an AirTag on my wallet doesn't do this. But that's just my guess - I'm too lazy to pull an SDR and listen to the radio traffic to confirm.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    You can configure the geofencing locations where it won't alarm in the 'Find My' app.
- pinkmuffinere 2y ago
  >it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. Does it even chirp then? This is news to me, I have an airtag in my car and have certainly left it for 2 weeks during vacations. I've never heard the airtag chirp unless I make it play a sound through "Find My"
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    Your home is usually automatically geofenced, so if you left it there it shouldn't chirp. If you parked your car elsewhere, e.g. an airport lot it was probably chirping while you were gone, but you wouldn't hear it because you weren't there.
indrora 2y ago
Yes, actually. It's not a panacea, but it's a foothold. Nearly all my hardside cases have an airtag stuffed in one of the "Surface Mount" kits from ElevationLab. it looks like a pressure valve on the other side, and I might replace them with Security mounts if I'm really worried. Having those was a FANTASTIC way to track my cases as I left them with a (trusted) friend to be shipped along some other Very High Value gear. Being able to see what was going on (and know when it had reached its destination) was invaluable. On the way back, I could see my luggage as it slugged its way through the airport luggage handling system. It's not real-time but good enough for rough location. A friend of mine was able to locate their stolen vehicle down to the block and then drone-find the vehicle from there, call the cops, and ended up busting an interstate chop shop in the process. The AirTag consistently got gasps of updates from passing vehicles and the neighbor's HomePod. All this because she had hidden an airtag in the gas cap. There are airlines that are encouraging people to put airtags/tiles/samsung trackers on their checked luggage because it helps them keep the airport handlers in check. A prime example of this is flying with guns (yes, you can fly with guns!) and how having an airtag made it EASIER to recover the firearm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHyb2amIkzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHyb2amIkzo (This happened AGAIN, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBngUc3rmY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBngUc3rmY0 -- Yes, airlines are TERRIBLE about handling these things!)
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  Wow, those surface mount kits are pretty cool. I found them here: https://www.elevationlab.com/products/tagvault-surface-security https://www.elevationlab.com/products/tagvault-surface-secur... That same company also makes the 10 year AirTag battery. I am surprised that no one has released a 3D model to print. It would be popular with DIYers.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > There are airlines that are encouraging people to put airtags/tiles/samsung trackers on their checked luggage because it helps them keep the airport handlers in check. They'd rather do anything than pay airport handlers better lol
comradesmith 2y ago
You can disable the speaker physically, it’s not too difficult
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
quitit 2y ago
>Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes? For small items where the airtag is merely present, it can be useful from the perspective of being alerted when an item is left behind or taken away from your surroundings. Much theft crime is opportunistic, such as forgetting a wallet behind in a restaurant, or dropping it in a street. Airtags are useful in that regard as the "left behind" alerts are reasonably timely, and tracking an item down works well. This works because you realise it's gone and find it before someone else does. While there are still plenty of examples of people using airtags for recovery of stolen goods, that's not the main product intention as it is very easy to discover and disable a loose airtag. Some larger items however (e.g. certain bikes) have airtags built in which aren't easily disabled, there are also mounting cages which serve a similar purpose - in these circumstances it is a legitimate antitheft device because the ability to easily disable it is removed. I use airtags and my most common use of it is to ask siri to "jingle my keys", which alerts me to whichever coat or pair of jeans I've left them in (my second most common use is receiving an alert that I've left my umbrella behind somewhere). I also remember one occasion of leaving my keys in a taxi, realising immediately, and chasing it down the road - the taxi never saw me, and I never saw my keys again, with an airtag that would have played out differently. These kinds of situations are far more common than dealing with thievery.

dmajor2 2y ago

No, they have been rendered useless for that purpose through software updates because of the almost 100% overlap of the use cases of 1) stalking someone 2) and tracking a thief.

ronsor 2y ago
Wait until they realize the almost 100% overlap between the camera's use cases of 1) spying on people and 2) recording nature
- post-it 2y ago
  Nature cameras are relatively hard to conceal (from humans), whereas AirTags are very easy to conceal.
  - theshrike79 2y ago
    They are also very bad for tracking compared to what you can get on Aliexpress/eBay/Amazon (which are the same tbh). For about the same price you can get a device with a SIM card and GPS/GLONASS and _zero_ ways to detect it.
    - post-it 2y ago
      What's the battery life on that though? The appeal of AirTags is that they last a year and work anywhere that has an iPhone nearby.
      - theshrike79 2y ago
        Depends on the device. Some are active all the time, some can sleep and only wake up to get their position fix every hour or so. It's not exactly rocket science to adjust the programming. And if you're stalking someone for a year, you'll have ample options to swap the device to a new one with a fresh battery.
    - throwaway2037 2y ago
      Can you give a couple of example products? I am very curious.
nucleardog 2y ago
I think you can still thread the needle. The cases are identical except for one situation--if the air tag is difficult to find or remove. If you can't find or remove the air tag, then the option you have left to not be tracked is to separate yourself from the tracked thing. In the case of someone being stalked, that's inconvenient (that doesn't do it justice, but not really important to my point). In the case of someone who stole something, that's actually the desired outcome. Imagine a situation where you get in a car and a few minutes later it says there's an air tag following you. If you're being stalked... you can drive straight to a mechanic who can take all the time they need to find it, take a taxi over to the police and report it, etc. If you just stole that car, now you know you're on the clock. Once someone's looking for you and that vehicle, there's a really good chance they're going to find it. You can take it to a mechanic, but a reputable mechanic might have some questions. You can try a less reputable mechanic, but they're gonna be pissed when the cops come knocking asking about the stolen car sitting over there and you might not be going back there any time soon. So if you can't find and remove the air tag relatively quickly, what options do you have left? Probably makes more sense to abandon the vehicle and try another one with a lower risk of winding up in jail. I _know_ where the air tag is in my suitcase and it would take me tools and ~15 minutes to remove. How long is someone going to spend at that versus just tossing it?
- to11mtm 2y ago
  TBH your response makes me realize there's possibly a decent use case for bicycles with the right diameter tubing. > You can try a less reputable mechanic, but they're gonna be pissed when the cops come knocking asking about the stolen car sitting over there and you might not be going back there any time soon. So if you can't find and remove the air tag relatively quickly, what options do you have left? Probably makes more sense to abandon the vehicle and try another one with a lower risk of winding up in jail. Depends on the skill of the chop-shop or it's folks and where you are. A fun thought experience would be how much suspicion a flatbed tow truck with some form of faraday cage around the car, below a cover would get from LE. Agree with your general 'deterrent' concept, I think the main challenge a lot of folks run into is getting lazy with placement. Glove/console boxes, the 'pockets' on the back of front seats, are all stupid easy. Technically anything in the interior, probably can be 'found' with sufficient detection capability. No, you put that thing somewhere weird and ideally a PITA to get at. This honestly gives me the idea of finding the right spot in my WRX front headlights to make it not visible; If the spot I'm thinking of will work, they'd literally have to pull off the front bumper to even get at it...

OutOfHere 2y ago

Samsung tracker doesn't have this silly problem.

lcfcjs6 2y ago
Samsung make trackers? Are you referring to tile?
- OutOfHere 2y ago
  > Samsung make trackers? Yes. > Are you referring to tile? No.
- selcuka 2y ago
  Samsung Galaxy SmartTags: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088244/ https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088244/
- KomoD 2y ago
  Why would he be referring to Tile when he said Samsung? Samsung has nothing to do with Tile.

carlgreene 2y ago

Yes, but only if you remove the speaker which is well documented on YouTube

kube-system 2y ago
Even if you do that they will still notify a thief with a notification on their iPhone.
- omgwtfbyobbq 2y ago
  I think that's ok though, right? As long as you do a good job placing/hiding it, the thief can't easily find and remove/disable without the speaker.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    How big is your item and how hard is it to search? If you know a bag has an airtag in it, it won't take that long to find.
    - wholinator2 2y ago
      True, a suitcase could be quickly dispatched but you could hide it very very well on something like a car.
      - kube-system 2y ago
        Maybe, but is any old car thief on the street going to hang on to a car they know has an airtag in it? They probably were going to joy ride it for the afternoon, maybe commit some other crime, wreck it, and dump it regardless. I have an airtag in my car, but I don't think I'm going to get much value out of it other than finding my car when I forget where I'm parked. If you want to catch a criminal in the act, you usually need to observe surreptitiously or they'll change behavior.
        2y ago

_yb2s 2y ago

There is something wrong with your configuration/setup, it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. I have them on tons of my devices, including my kids personal items that go to school, etc. and they never chirp, and I can and have found items that were misplaced in public locations (but not actually stolen).

drdaeman 2y ago
> There is something wrong with your configuration/setup Something is off for sure, but it's not like there are any user-configurable parts here. I literally just threw it in the trunk - and it's not like there's a right and a wrong way to do it. :-) I guess it's because I don't have a garage and my car is parked in a carport, about ~100 feet/~30 meters away from my apartment, so it "normally" doesn't sense my phone "nearby". Then, I suspect, when I walk down and sit in the car (which takes just a minute or two) there is not enough time for it to reconnect with the phone and realize the owner is around. Because an AirTag on my wallet doesn't do this. But that's just my guess - I'm too lazy to pull an SDR and listen to the radio traffic to confirm.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  You can configure the geofencing locations where it won't alarm in the 'Find My' app.
pinkmuffinere 2y ago
>it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. Does it even chirp then? This is news to me, I have an airtag in my car and have certainly left it for 2 weeks during vacations. I've never heard the airtag chirp unless I make it play a sound through "Find My"
- _yb2s 2y ago
  Your home is usually automatically geofenced, so if you left it there it shouldn't chirp. If you parked your car elsewhere, e.g. an airport lot it was probably chirping while you were gone, but you wouldn't hear it because you weren't there.

indrora 2y ago

Yes, actually. It's not a panacea, but it's a foothold. Nearly all my hardside cases have an airtag stuffed in one of the "Surface Mount" kits from ElevationLab. it looks like a pressure valve on the other side, and I might replace them with Security mounts if I'm really worried. Having those was a FANTASTIC way to track my cases as I left them with a (trusted) friend to be shipped along some other Very High Value gear. Being able to see what was going on (and know when it had reached its destination) was invaluable. On the way back, I could see my luggage as it slugged its way through the airport luggage handling system. It's not real-time but good enough for rough location. A friend of mine was able to locate their stolen vehicle down to the block and then drone-find the vehicle from there, call the cops, and ended up busting an interstate chop shop in the process. The AirTag consistently got gasps of updates from passing vehicles and the neighbor's HomePod. All this because she had hidden an airtag in the gas cap. There are airlines that are encouraging people to put airtags/tiles/samsung trackers on their checked luggage because it helps them keep the airport handlers in check. A prime example of this is flying with guns (yes, you can fly with guns!) and how having an airtag made it EASIER to recover the firearm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHyb2amIkzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHyb2amIkzo (This happened AGAIN, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBngUc3rmY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBngUc3rmY0 -- Yes, airlines are TERRIBLE about handling these things!)

throwaway2037 2y ago
Wow, those surface mount kits are pretty cool. I found them here: https://www.elevationlab.com/products/tagvault-surface-security https://www.elevationlab.com/products/tagvault-surface-secur... That same company also makes the 10 year AirTag battery. I am surprised that no one has released a 3D model to print. It would be popular with DIYers.
mschuster91 2y ago
> There are airlines that are encouraging people to put airtags/tiles/samsung trackers on their checked luggage because it helps them keep the airport handlers in check. They'd rather do anything than pay airport handlers better lol

comradesmith 2y ago

You can disable the speaker physically, it’s not too difficult

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

quitit 2y ago

>Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes? For small items where the airtag is merely present, it can be useful from the perspective of being alerted when an item is left behind or taken away from your surroundings. Much theft crime is opportunistic, such as forgetting a wallet behind in a restaurant, or dropping it in a street. Airtags are useful in that regard as the "left behind" alerts are reasonably timely, and tracking an item down works well. This works because you realise it's gone and find it before someone else does. While there are still plenty of examples of people using airtags for recovery of stolen goods, that's not the main product intention as it is very easy to discover and disable a loose airtag. Some larger items however (e.g. certain bikes) have airtags built in which aren't easily disabled, there are also mounting cages which serve a similar purpose - in these circumstances it is a legitimate antitheft device because the ability to easily disable it is removed. I use airtags and my most common use of it is to ask siri to "jingle my keys", which alerts me to whichever coat or pair of jeans I've left them in (my second most common use is receiving an alert that I've left my umbrella behind somewhere). I also remember one occasion of leaving my keys in a taxi, realising immediately, and chasing it down the road - the taxi never saw me, and I never saw my keys again, with an airtag that would have played out differently. These kinds of situations are far more common than dealing with thievery.