77
Are You Being Tracked by an AirTag? Here’s How to Check
(www.wired.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
77 points (97.5% liked)
Privacy
32177 readers
264 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
What is the intended use for these?
all I ever see these used is for nefarious shut like tracking a person or car or something.
Tracking your property, in case it gets stolen/lost.
Theoretically it's meant for tracking a lost item, I personally find the cost of Entry to be too steep for it to be worth using as a lost item detector, anything that would be worthwhile having it on tends to be significantly cheaper than the tag itself which makes it not really worth it.
The only use case I can think of is putting it in a luggage suitcase when going on a train or plane, but even then the first thing anyone who steals a suitcase is going to do is throw the tag out and even if they don't you still have to somehow get to the suitcase and retrieve it, which means you'll need to get law enforcement involved so you remain safe while doing so.
People have found their lost luggage at X airport using these, sometimes when the airline claims it is at Y.
I do agree this usecase might be helpful, if it wasn't stolen and just misplaced.
I personally use a Samsung Smarttag to track my cat in case she ever manage to get out.
These days, it's not really that good at tracking people. If the tag goes out of range for too long, it randomly starts beeping. Also, if the person that being tracked has a smartphone, iOS or Android, their phone will have a notification if it detect the same bluetooth signal travelling with them for a certain amount of time. The companies had to nerf these trackers because people were complaining about them.
Ironically, if you use a custom OS like a linux phone or Graphene OS, you probably won't get these notifications. (I hope Graphene OS developers know about this by now and tries to implement their own tracker detection in their version of Android.)
tracking a pet
anything you might want to track/find. keychain. luggage. a purse. a pet. where you parked. they have card sized ones to put in your wallet. maybe they should put them in remote controls.
I put one on my tv remote. Now when my kids lose the remote, I just ask Siri to ping it.