![]() ![]() Apple has already made some changes to start to address AirTag stalking concerns, and those improvements may wind up in iOS 15.4 very soon. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind it if someone could figure out a way to make an AirTag withstand the heat of a catalytic converter so thieves and the location of the shops that buy those stolen catalytic converters could be reported to the police.Īpple and Tile are likely uncomfortable with the trackers being used this way since they’re always thinking about the liability that could come their way. I recommend you read Macworld’s excellent guide on how to find and neutralize unwanted AirTags that may be tracking you.īut for the low price of $29, you can basically tag your car, bicycle, motorcycle, outdoor grill, or generator and track it down should it ever get “misplaced.” In fact, it’s already popular to tag pets with AirTags to track them down should they run off. Many states have laws that prevent electronic tracking of a person without their knowledge. But they are also legitimately criminal activities too. That’s an understandable knee-jerk reaction many people would have after seeing the latest 60-second TV news broadcast or newspaper story on an AirTag “used to follow someone home!” These occurrences shouldn’t be made light of and they are a legitimate problem. In fact, some would probably call for the technology to be outright banned. This is scary, Apple (and Tile) need to do something!Īfter seeing just how scary effective the AirTag (and to an extent, Tile) is, you might think I’m for Apple potentially Nerfing its use further. In a dense area, it’s unlikely you’re ever out of radio range of an iPhone reporting that AirTag’s last location. It relies on your phone to report its location back to you. But she uses an iPhone that the AirTag would use to update its location.Īgain: An AirTag doesn’t have GPS. If she had the Tile app running, the location updates could have been better. The reason? My daughter has a Tile but the app is no longer active because she became frustrated with it just not working. But it still paled in comparison to the AirTag, which gave me updates on my daughter’s location that let me pinpoint her location by perhaps 25 feet to 50 feet and seemly updated every time I checked. The Tile Pro, again, did far better than I expected in a dense metropolitan area where there are just enough Amazon Sidewalk devices and Tile-enabled phones. ![]() To simulate that experience, I placed both the Tile Pro and the AirTag in my daughter’s backpack and watched her movements. The Sports Illustrated model that was tracked said that the culprit planted an AirTag in her jacket to follow her walk home. If you lose your AirTag, the vast Find My network will track it down for you. If I had planted an AirTag or Tile Pro on their car, it wouldn’t have helped me. I’ve actually tried to tail someone the old fashioned way as reporter and lost them within a few minutes. And, uh, also taped to the bumper to simulate my life-long fantasy of being PI Jim Rockford tailing someone. ![]() Tracking device for a tail: Near uselessįor my tests, I tested with the trackers inside the car in a cup holder. With all that out of the way, I tracked my family with my AirTag and Tile Pro in a variety of scenarios. Most of the coarse location information is done using Bluetooth. There is also a short-range, high-precision locator feature on newer trackers but that’s only when you’re very close to the tag. The trackers do NOT contain GPS locators, but instead rely on the phone or Amazon Sidewalk device’s reported location. The AirTag does the same but with the key difference of a billion iOS devices that can be pinged. For Tile, any other phone running the Tile App or any Amazon Sidewalk (Echo, etc) device will report if they’ve received the beacon and relay the information. ![]()
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