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Both Google's and Apple's "Find my" are services implemented on top of Bluetooth which you can disable independently of it. They're basically pre-installed apps
by lxgr 2y ago
Both Google's and Apple's "Find my" are services implemented on top of Bluetooth which you can disable independently of it. They're basically pre-installed apps (e.g. Tile used to do the same thing using a third party app before them). Including them to support the statement "Bluetooth itself is intentionally used to track users" seems like moving goalposts.
Yes, these services being enabled by default isn't great, but if you're claiming that there's any data collection or intentional device broadcasting happening beyond that, i.e. at the base OS level, I'd be happy to see evidence of that (as I would also find that very concerning).
Regarding antenna/transmission chain/baseband fingerprinting: These are indeed concerning, and I hope there will be countermeasures available at some point. But these should theoretically affect all radio technologies, right? In that case, turning off (just) Bluetooth would not help much, given that phones have at least one other permanently enabled radio. It's a different story for devices that have only Bluetooth, of course.