Yes, within about 30 minutes. They are basically useless for theft prevention as a result. Apple nerfed the functionality after someone used it for stalking. You'll notice there is no mention of theft prevention in the marketing materials anymore.
Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.
There never was mention of theft prevention. The release day marketing was about losing your keys in the couch. Day one ios would alert you if a tag was tracking you but it took a while for them to collaborate with Android on it.
The societal harm from allowing cheap silent tracking of people is greater than the benefit of recovering stolen bags.
Apple skirt around the issue now, but what is the one of primary scenarios for "lost luggage, keys, bicycles, bags" if not theft?
They have also done videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwdhWM9d0Y where they show Find My as a tool for theft prevention, although in that case it's a Macbook not an Airtag.
It's also kinda weird to use it for anti-theft when you think about how AirTags work. They aren't GPS, rather all these Apple devices are seeing it with Bluetooth and snitching on the location.
> Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.
Took them half a year and public pressure to develop something. 3 years for a joint standard (DULT) with google after google developed something by themselves.
There is always pressure required for those things...
Many, many people used them for stalking. I personally know somebody whose estranged husband did. I try to keep myself pretty ignorant of Apple products, and it was the first time I got a detailed explanation of how they worked.
You get a notification when an AirTag is following you for some time, but the AirTags owner is not near it. It's meant to detect someone slipping an AirTag on you without the false alarms from, say, taking a walk with a friend who has one in their backpack.
Wait so a thieve an eye with an iPhone who steals my expensive bicycle that I have tagged with an airtag Is receiving a notification that there is an airtag "following" them nearby?
They always talk about lost items in their marketing. They don’t talk about theft prevention or finding pets or anything. Gotta go for a mini GPS tracker or something for protecting $$$$(+) bikes (which should never leave one’s sight anyway).
Here's a real world case I've run into a bunch of times. Parents send children to school with Airtags in their backpacks. (The children are young and don't themselves have phones.) Class goes on a field trip. Boom, tons of notifications.
Yes indeed. Not only that, Apple worked with Android to make it work there too. It makes it a lot easier on the thief so they don’t have buy/steal an iPhone, too.
Yeah, I forget the wording but there’s a notification like “so-and-so’s AirTag is near you and they can see where you are.” My spouse put AirTags in our baby stuff and I get them whenever I’m using it.
It's also other devices. I used to get a notification that my wife's AirPods would be following me. It only got silenced when we formed an Apple family.
We have AirTags registered to my wife's account because I use Android. I have one in my work backpack, and every morning I get a notification that an unknown tracker is following me. I wish there was a way to silence the warning for that specific tag.
Yes, within about 30 minutes. They are basically useless for theft prevention as a result. Apple nerfed the functionality after someone used it for stalking. You'll notice there is no mention of theft prevention in the marketing materials anymore.
Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...
There never was mention of theft prevention. The release day marketing was about losing your keys in the couch. Day one ios would alert you if a tag was tracking you but it took a while for them to collaborate with Android on it.
The societal harm from allowing cheap silent tracking of people is greater than the benefit of recovering stolen bags.
Apple skirt around the issue now, but what is the one of primary scenarios for "lost luggage, keys, bicycles, bags" if not theft?
They have also done videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwdhWM9d0Y where they show Find My as a tool for theft prevention, although in that case it's a Macbook not an Airtag.
It's also kinda weird to use it for anti-theft when you think about how AirTags work. They aren't GPS, rather all these Apple devices are seeing it with Bluetooth and snitching on the location.
maybe they could set something up where local pd handles the tracking if/when necessary
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> Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.
Took them half a year and public pressure to develop something. 3 years for a joint standard (DULT) with google after google developed something by themselves.
There is always pressure required for those things...
It's hilarious that it didn't notify Android phones for a while
> after someone used it for stalking.
Many, many people used them for stalking. I personally know somebody whose estranged husband did. I try to keep myself pretty ignorant of Apple products, and it was the first time I got a detailed explanation of how they worked.
Android 6 and up has in unbuilt support, per that app
You get a notification when an AirTag is following you for some time, but the AirTags owner is not near it. It's meant to detect someone slipping an AirTag on you without the false alarms from, say, taking a walk with a friend who has one in their backpack.
Wait so a thieve an eye with an iPhone who steals my expensive bicycle that I have tagged with an airtag Is receiving a notification that there is an airtag "following" them nearby?
Yes, the moral of the story is - don't steal expensive bikes if you don't want to get spammed by notifications that the bike is following you.
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They always talk about lost items in their marketing. They don’t talk about theft prevention or finding pets or anything. Gotta go for a mini GPS tracker or something for protecting $$$$(+) bikes (which should never leave one’s sight anyway).
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It's far from the only annoying false positive.
Here's a real world case I've run into a bunch of times. Parents send children to school with Airtags in their backpacks. (The children are young and don't themselves have phones.) Class goes on a field trip. Boom, tons of notifications.
Yes indeed. Not only that, Apple worked with Android to make it work there too. It makes it a lot easier on the thief so they don’t have buy/steal an iPhone, too.
Yes. The alternative is to have stalkers using hidden airtags
So what good is piercing the AirTag's speaker?
It stops the audible notifications for people who aren't looking at a phone screen.
They also ring when a non-associated iphone is moving with them for some time.
Android users
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Yeah, I forget the wording but there’s a notification like “so-and-so’s AirTag is near you and they can see where you are.” My spouse put AirTags in our baby stuff and I get them whenever I’m using it.
It's also other devices. I used to get a notification that my wife's AirPods would be following me. It only got silenced when we formed an Apple family.
We have AirTags registered to my wife's account because I use Android. I have one in my work backpack, and every morning I get a notification that an unknown tracker is following me. I wish there was a way to silence the warning for that specific tag.
My husband's "shared" his with me and now I don't get warnings anymore, but we're both on iOS
Does it also share location ?
this is the perfect use case for a little faraday baggy
If an unrecognized AirTag is following you, you'll get a notice.
I'm not constantly notified that my keys are with me. But if you stuck an AirTag in my backpack, my phone would tell me.
No, only if an airtag that's not theirs follows them for an amount of time
Not sure about on iPhone but Android definitely alerts you if an unknown airtag follows you while moving.