4 ms·
So they made it impossible to remove speaker, destroying its usability as a theft tracking device. One could add an airtag with a removed speaker on a bike/scoo
by storus 9mo ago
So they made it impossible to remove speaker, destroying its usability as a theft tracking device. One could add an airtag with a removed speaker on a bike/scooter/car and then localize it in case of theft. With the new airtag any thief will be quickly notified they are tracked.
- varenc 9mo agoThere's an inherent conflict between use as a theft tracking device, and use as a stalking device. Both situations are pretty indistinguishable. Apple is prioritizing reducing the AirTag's utility to stalkers.
- storus 9mo agoAgain prioritizing low cardinality event (stalking) instead of high cardinality event (theft) because of "security", making the device mostly pointless, good only to quickly locate some thing at home (assuming battery still holds after the thing being forgotten for years in a closet).
- ghaff 9mo agoIt's useful to help locate things both at home and when traveling. But, yes, optimizing for potential theft recovery conflicts with disabling stalking and, however uncommon, the latter got a lot of publicity, so it's something Apple etc. wanted to focus on (especially given that, in most places, theft prevention probably wasn't very effective anyway).
- stephenr 9mo agoI think you'll find it's not so much about how likely the event is (stalking vs theft) as it is about the potential impact of the event. The things you want to "protect" with an invisible AirTag are, at their core "just stuff". The things being protected by not selling an invisible AirTag are, at their core "people".
- sejje 9mo agoI think if my car is stolen, it's probably a bigger deal for me personally than stalking. I'm not a female, so I don't anticipate a civilian stalking me for really any reason. A non-civilian wouldn't use an airtag. Zero stalkers are stopped because of airtag policies, since many other devices exist.
- stephenr 9mo agoThere are infinitely better ways to protect your car from being stolen than putting a fucking AirTag in it, and as a bonus you can buy all of them without sounding self-centred and flippant about real threats to other people.
- sejje 9mo agoIt's not to prevent my car being stolen. It's to find it after it's stolen. People have been stalking each other since long before airtags.
- stephenr 9mo agoWell it's a good thing for you, someone just yesterday told me: > many other devices exist So use one of them?
- sejje 9mo agoI do. I don't own an airtag.
- stephenr 9mo agoSo your complaint is, "This product that I don't own, and isn't designed to do what I want, doesn't do the thing it isn't designed to do.". Do you also post complaints that GE Washing machines don't have a built-in method to cook a fucking chicken?
- TSiege 9mo agoA train is barreling down the tracks while you stand at a switch. Do nothing and the train will destroy dozens of bicycles. If you pull the switch the train will kill one woman you've never met. You sure you still wanna pull that switch?
- oscaracso 9mo agoThe false dichotomy you present does not become any more credible in the form of a thought experiment.
- TSiege 9mo agoThis is literally the situation the comment I'm responding to set up
- potsandpans 9mo agoHow many people's lives in third world countries were ruined making that train? And I know, I know, the downvoterinos! I don't actually care about this issue at all. The observation is: that moral grandstanding of "woman's lives to stolen bicycles" is somewhat amusing when the hardware is built on the backs of underpaid people in the global south. All so people can have little toys of convenience. It's likely that Apple doesn't care about woman's lives either, for what it's worth. Just the negative PR associated with the problem at hand.
- aqme28 9mo ago"Again prioritizing low cardinality event (stalking) instead of high cardinality event (theft)" I don't think you can speak to the relative likelihood of these with any confidence. There are lots of people for whom stalking is a much bigger problem than theft.
- cryptoegorophy 9mo agoStalking has likelihood of being life threatening, property can’t be life threatening.
- musictubes 9mo agoThey are prioritizing safety both personal and litigious. Apple markets it as a way to find lost things, not stolen things. There are trackers you can buy for tracking stolen things. I'm only familiar with ones designed for cars but I'm sure there are others as well.
- varenc 9mo agoThat's a personal preference. I have like 12 AirTags and find them quite useful. The precise indoor tracking functionality is great. Losing/misplacing something happens a lot more to me than theft. Though I do have an airtag I've removed the speaker from, so could be useful in a theft situation.
- midtake 9mo agoThere are ways to use AirTags that are true stalking methods and these aren't currently mitigated by Apple. If anything this is a false sense of security. Nerfing their product seems more like corporate CYA than concern for public safety.
- Diti 9mo ago> Apple is prioritizing reducing the AirTag's utility to stalkers. No, Apple is prioritizing good publicity. A motivated stalker will just be using another product, which is a net financial negative for Apple. They just don’t want the possibility of the news talking about how someone got assaulted thanks to an Apple device.
- varenc 9mo agoThat seems a little extreme. Another device won't have the advantage of Apple's "Find My Network". Competitors like Tile have a much smaller network. Or devices that rely on cellular are much larger and don't have a battery that lasts for years. Or even if there is an AirTag alternative that's just as functional, it's less well known and would-be stalkers will have a harder time finding it and using it. So by not supporting the stalking use case Apple is genuinely making it a little harder for stalkers. But also, I agree that this is about reputational liability more than some higher desire to do good. But IMHO it's also doing some actual good.
- Muromec 9mo agoApple decided its better to not enable stalkers and get bad press for that. From tne point of view of the tracker anti theft and stalking are kinda the same. This mirrors yesterdays one about efuses btw
- imoverclocked 9mo ago> Find My makes it easy to locate AirTag, Apple devices, and compatible third-party devices The other side of this is that it can't be used to slip into someone's purse as they leave the bar and then be tracked unknowingly. Apple leaves the door open for manufacturers to implement an anti-theft device into their goods that address both concerns.
- sejje 9mo agoAssuming the victim owns a modern phone and still possesses it, sure. Seems just as easy to boost the phone while you're dropping the tag.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- pnw 9mo agoApple has removed all mention of theft tracking from their site once they added the stalking protection. Airtag is for people who lose things, not finding stolen things. You have less than an hour before an Airtag alerts a thief they are being tracked.
- ehnto 9mo agoThat is also true for thieves looking to steal your vehicle by finding where you live, so it is an unfortunate intersection of crime and crime prevention. There are much better options for vehicle tracking and theft prevention so I would personally prefer it to be harder for thieves or stalkers to track using these very easy to get devices.
- WheatMillington 9mo agoWe don't need to risk having people stalked/tracked just so you can play pretend sheriff.
- sejje 9mo agoWe aren't risking it; you can already stalk people with other devices and methods. This doesn't increase the "stalkability."
- valzam 9mo agoWe have an airtag in our cargo bike, connected to our ipad (neither my wife nor I have an Iphone). It never actually makes a sound and we can reliably track on the ipad. what gives? I never thought about this.
- vostrocity 9mo agoAu contraire, my airtag in my car sometimes makes sounds even when it's just me driving in the car.