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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

Other than the stalking aspect (which is very real) it's crazy to me that Apple casually built the largest surveillance network in the world and tech-minded people, who are usually up in arms about stuff way milder than this, are actually cheering them on. Is it because of the Apple logo (I remember a million negative comments about Amazon's similar mesh network)? Or because it makes your life 0.01% easier? Is it really worth it to carry a tool in your pocket 24x7 that governments, stalkers, investigators or anyone else can use for their own ends without you even realizing it?

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It’s end-to-end encrypted, so the only other devices able to read the location of your phone/AirTag/laptop/etc. are devices that you own. Nobody else—not Apple, not the government—can access your location data in any way.

This network used to only exist for iDevices, making it very easy to track down a lost or stolen phone or tablet. People didn’t have any concerns about stalking because it’s not practical to hide a phone to stalk someone (and the battery would only be good for a few days anyway). The game changed when AirTags were introduced, which are both easily concealed and have replaceable batteries that last for years, hence why we’re seeing critical articles like the OP.

Thanks for pointing out the encryption. Would be nice if the original article did explain a bit what's actually going on...

> Nobody else—not Apple, not the government—can access your location data in any way.

You seriously believe that, do you?

Yes.

The protocol is fully published - and more then a few acadmeics are trying to earn their PhDs and creds by finding faults in it.

Tinfoilism isn't helpful here.

Really, that's beyond naive. You can point to protocols and absence of faults in it, but this protocol works on a device fully remotely controlled by Apple, and you communicate with your location data via Apple website that loads a very big chunk of JS. Can you prove that Apple does not have the ability to slip a somewhat modified JS code specially for you, so it would relay your supposedly end-to-end-encrypted data somewhere else? And that it does not have the ability to access your phone and do anything they want with it? Installing software remotely, installing trackers remotely, remotely accessing information stored in your apps?

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