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Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

I would be more understanding if this were an Airtag, which you can't prove is attached to any particular thing. You could have put it in someone else's backpack!

But this is a laptop, which is linked to the user's account and which Apple is reporting is in a particular location. That seems like a pretty clear-cut case.

And if the neighbor is saying they don't have the laptop, then they should have no problem with the laptop's owner coming in and triggering a sound. Basically, it seems like there's probably cause here, and it would be minimally intrusive to put this to rest.

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If one my neighbors came to my door and accused me of stealing a laptop, and then wanted to come into my house, I would also refuse them access. It isn't because I'm guilty, but because I don't take orders from my neighbor.

If my neighbor came to my house and said their missing laptop is showing up in my house and I didn't steal it I'd obviously let them come in and see.

Since when do you treat your neighbors with that kind of default animosity?

If there is a back story that is one thing but who cares if your neighbor looks inside briefly to see the find my feature is malfunctioning.

Have you missed the part where the neighbor is at my door accusing me of being a thief?

How on earth can you say "Find my Mac says my laptop is in your house." without saying they're a thief? Do you need to add "...I'm not saying you stole but it was stolen. Maybe the real thief stashed in it your cupboard?" Or do you add "...let's see if Find my Mac is broken?"

I'm not sure how someone would approach that situation. But I can say that if someone comes to my door and accuses me of being a thief, that interaction is not starting off well.

With a hostile attitude like yours I hope you never need help from a neighbour.

> Apple is reporting is in a particular location.

With what Accuracy and Precision? There was an article on HN, probably a few years ago now about how some geoIP company returned a specific location near the center of the US, instead of not found. The location was on someone's property so police, FBI, and everybody under the sun would come and harass them because the computer said it was right here.

For all we know it is in their house and connecting to the neighbor's wifi.

https://splinternews.com/how-an-internet-mapping-glitch-turn...

Scary read overall.

And, MacBooks don't have GPS, AFAIK, so it's more likely going on pings from nearby devices on the FindMy network, potentially less accurate. Depending on the houses around the area it might or might not be as trust-worthy.

An iPhone I'd expect to be much more exact.

> For all we know it is in their house and connecting to the neighbor's wifi.

You're absolutely right that the distance between homes is key here. If it's apartments, I wouldn't put much stock in the location accuracy. But if it's standalone homes with normal setbacks from the property line, I'd think they'd have enough (in the US, which this is not) for a search warrant.

on the other hand, this is a laptop not an airtag - the results in find my don't have the same precision.

sure, it's being pinpointed as in the neighbour's house, but what are the odds that's it's simply been lost in the owner's house? Find my often will place my laptop in my neighbour's house even when it's sitting on my lap.

I get that Find My is not always correct. I've seen this with Airtags and iPhones. But it doesn't usually ping the wrong location for days on end, which it sounds like it has here.

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