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Comment by dado3212 | Hacker News Reader

I think they’ve done a pretty admirable job in trying to solve the privacy issues. The same thing that makes the product so effective is the same thing that makes it problematic, and I don’t really see a way to solve it. The TILE has the same issues with none of the best effort solutions, it’s just less of an abuse vector because it’s a worse product. These articles of “this can be misused” feels like really low hanging fruit.

Are there any solutions or ideas that are actually being suggested here?

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It's not possible while only tracking the airtag.

Here are some ideas, perhaps someone can improve it:

- There's no reason for an airtag to be on the move + the iPhone owner in a separate location. A lost device is almost always are a desk/table/... Problem is the edge case when stolen. I'm not sure yet how to identify different behavior between stolen/stalking.

- "stalking behavior" should be different from "lost device" behavior. Eg. Constantly looking to the app and following the airtag early

Perhaps differentiating between state: stolen/lost.

Where stolen should be redirected to an authority figure and lost is a signal beeping when you're nearby.

But yeah, it's probably too much work.

Too much work for one of the largest tech companies? I have my doubts. They could solve this if they wanted to.

Not only that, but it could add additional actions when using an airtag.

In what way have they made an actual attempt to solve the privacy issues?

If they were actually trying to solve the privacy issues, the precise location would get more and more vague depending how far you are from the tag. If they were actually trying to solve the privacy issues they’d delay/throttle position updates.

These things don’t solve any real problems, short of losing your keys/purse. If it’s attached to a stolen item, the police probably don’t care and confronting the thief is probably a great way to get killed or end up getting yourself arrested until the cops can sort out the he-said-she-said.

While I’m not super keen on this myself, if somebody stole something valuable enough to make or break my quality of life I would take a stab at repossessing it. If the police don’t care about the stolen item in the first place why would they care about me stealing it back? The thief thought it would be worth it to take the risk of stealing so why can’t I come to the same conclusion?

People can lose things like their vehicle and consequently their jobs and consequently their families.

They made it notify users when they are in the presence of an AirTag as they move around (that isn’t their own AirTag).

> These things don’t solve any real problems, short of losing your keys/purse

In other words a very common and frustrating occurrence for many many people.

Now if only they would extend that consideration to include the wast majority of people on this planet that do not own nor use any Apple products.

How many Android users are being stalked without knowing about it?

And yes, there are FOSS solutions on F-droid that partially solve this. But normal users wont know how to find them, and the onus is on Apple to supply an app with these kinds of features given that they are producing these trackers.

/edit: I just now see mentions of an official Apple detector app that does just what I mentioned (had completely hone by me). While I'd rather that there were no trackers like these made, this will at least do for now.

/edit2: It seems this official app requires users to actively scan for trackers rather than doing so from the background. That makes this a very weak attempt at appeasing the worries of non Apple users. Then the FOSS Airguard app is much better.

At this point, your beef is with Google to scan in the background, not with Apple. Apple’s provided what they’re allowed to offer.

No, they haven't as there are other 3rd party applications on offer that do this better (see my recommendation for AirGuard).

Honestly, your comment reads like it is written by an Apple fan who is incapable of empathising with others.

AirGuard is riddled with reviews that say it doesn’t detect known devices.

And with plenty of reviews saying it works.

As per the author's own comments to one such review:

> The app detects AirTags when they appear in their separated state i.e separated from any owner device for more than 15 minutes.

Background processing on Samsung devices can also be severly borked at times due to custom policies from the OEM.

Having thoroughly tested this my self, as well as looked over the code I am satisfied it does what it says on the can.

I’m just not so sure the power should exist to be available for abuse, regardless of how you try to “solve” it.

By this logic we should surrender our arms and legs as well, and really just die.

That doesn't follow at all "by this logic".

It does. GP's entire argument is that power that can be abused should not exist.

I’m saying this specific power, you’re extrapolating that to mean I think this means all power instead of starting the discussion about what makes this power different that it deserves different treatment. Taking someone’s opinion and arguing against an extreme extrapolation of it doesn’t leave much room for discussion.

It does if you subscribe to slippery slope fallacies

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