[Source Image: VisualSuite/iStock]
Posted on 04/30/2021 8:05:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Last week, Apple announced its new AirTags — $29 location-tracking fobs that can help find your keys or purse anywhere in the world. The devices, which are roughly the diameter of a quarter, have since been tested and lauded by tech journalists, including our own.
But technology often comes with unintended consequences, explain representatives from the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), a leading nonprofit with the goal of ending violence against women. NNEDV sits on advisory boards for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Uber and has consulted for both Google and Apple in the past (but not on AirTags). The organization’s representatives say that while Apple AirTags are a cheap, easy-to-use product to find a lost item, they are also a worrisome surveillance tool that could be leveraged by an abuser to discreetly track a partner. An AirTag simply needs to be slipped into someone’s bag or jacket pocket to track exactly where they go.
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
It's a stalking concern, but mostly, it's FUD. OTOH, I know people love to saddle on to stuff like this, so...
They can do that with any smartphone now!...............
Yeah, and guns kill people.
Pffft...
What action one my take when the location is known is the problem.
Just one more reason for potential victims to be armed and have the freedom to quickly purchase a firearm if necessary.
Will now be able to find which couch or seat the TV remote is stuffed into.
So tracking a cheating spouse is now domestic abuse. How about call it what it is, invasion of privacy. Screw groups like NNEDV, they only make things worse. Yes domestic violence occurs and is not a good thing. However its a two way street and many men are ruined for absolute nonsense because groups like this push false narratives.
How is this different than a Tile. I’ve been using those for years.
I wonder if these could be used in your own car as a cheap car theft tracker. Things like Lojack don’t work outside of bigger cities. Be interested in understanding exactly how they work, type of communication and frequency of communication, whether app alerts could be set on movement.
Air Tags are like Tile tags, which I use. They don’t have GPS, and cannot report back their location on a real-time basis.
If you mark an Airtag as ‘missing’, then other iPhones can report the tag location only if the iPhone is within Bluetooth distance of the Airtag. But Tiles do this as well.
The only worrying part is that with the Apple Airtags, probably EVERU iPhone would participate in locating a ‘lost’ tag, whereas with Tile a user must have the App installed on their phone, which is a much smaller universe of possible ‘informants.’
My first thought, drop it in the trunk of the car to track the kids night out.
You can always do what gas stations used to do with the keys for the public restroom: attach a big chunk of wood to the remote with some twine. :)
Samsung also has a similar item.
For one thing, Tile has a built-in hole to take a ring, making it easy to attach. Apple and third-party sources apparently sell ya that for extra.
But yes, exactly, very little difference.
Well since gramps quit bowling I think I have another use for that ball.
/bingo
It's weird, people still lose their keys, but never part from their phones. Mostly they need this tracking tags attached like a pendant to keep track of their crania. ;^)
For a long time now, there have been apps for that. I first saw someone do that while we were all waiting for someone to arrive for an extended family gathering (not my family, I'm part of the extensions).
Heh, yeah, that's a pretty big thing just to misplace. Of course, sometimes people have to take a cab home, and have no idea where they left their cars, so...
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