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Comment by foxtrottbravo | Hacker News Reader

If the user opted in to use the Find-My network, yes.

Most of users want a way to find / lock / remotely wipe their 1000$ phone in case it gets lost or stolen.

Ah, so Apple is linking the feature of finding _my_ phone with reporting on lots of others? That explains why people turn it on, but I find that creepy.

The technology is also built so that the location is encrypted for the device owner - so Apple doesn't have a database of the location of every Apple Find My enabled device in the world, which for me makes it not creepy - my devices can find my devices.

It's really useful for locating lost headphones, laptops, etc. -- whether stolen, left on public transport/taxi, or left at a friend's house.

Edit: link to Apple's description of how Find My works: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/sec6cbc80fd0/...

Thanks for pointing out the encryption. That changes things a bit, IMHO.

Would have been nice if the article explained a bit what is actually happening. The wikipedia article doesn't mention it either...

I've edited my comment to add a link to Apple's description of the service's approach: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/sec6cbc80fd0/...

So when another phone tells apple the id and location apple doesn't have a list of ids and locations?

>apple doesn't have a list of ids and locations?

That's right - you can read more at [1]

1: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/sec6cbc80fd0/...

Is there any independent analysis of this end to end encryption of location data, that confirms that Apple can not really access the location even if they want to?

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