Hacker News Reader

Comment by hk1337 | Hacker News Reader

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

Initially they didn’t have it, people complained, now they do, and people still complain.

Considering theft is a property crime and stalking is often a prelude to much worse, I think they made the right choice.

I'm not taking any position on this, but some data to chew on concerning the US. There are roughly fourteen million cases of larceny in the US every year, and between three and four million cases of stalking in the US every year. Rate of violence with larceny is roughly 1% whereas rate of violence with stalking averages 30%. Threats of violence with stalking occurs in about three out of every four cases, if I recall.

Of course, there is an implicit bias with measuring stalking as "peaceful" stalkers who never get caught leave no evidence. Unlike theft which always leaves evidence by its nature (the thing is gone).

Most property theft isn't reported, and won't be in your statistics.

Hard disagree. I am not and would not use an AirTag for stalking, and yet I am being punished for others doing it. It’s not fair to me.

I'm sorry, but that's silly. The argument is the other way around: would you like to be stalked by an airtag?

You can be stalked by 100 different devices on the market though. Not like this is the only possible way to track someone.

This is like nerfing knifes because they can kill people.

It's wild to see someone this forthcoming with their selfishness. You literally said "It’s not fair to me", as if a just world would prioritize your inconvenience over the safety of others.

I personally wouldn't use a rocket launcher for anything nefarious. It's super unfair.

Do you really think rocket launchers and airtags have the same risk?

Have you even considered the possibility that you or someone you love could one day be the victim of stalking?

I don't think you understand what the word "fair" means.

> Initially they didn’t have it

They did have anti-stalking from the start btw. People still complained that it wasn’t good enough so they reduced some of the timings.

Maybe it's different people.

fortunately stalkers can now use Flock, so they don't need to buy airtags.

Wrong bothsidesism. The right choice was making a functional product. This is not that.

> Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

So you can either keep a tag on your stuff that lets anyone know where you are at all times, or just not misplace your keys. It really doesn't seem that hard to not use something this privacy intrusive if that's your threat model.

That's not the complaint at all - the complaint is that, because of the anti-stalking measures added at the original launch, the AirTags can't be used to track stolen items because the thieves will be notified that they are being "stalked".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com