Yesterday, I posted an item about the updated Find My Device network Google launched for Android, but I forgot to link to an additional blog post by Google about the various security and privacy precautions they’ve taken. One aspect in particular stands out as something new that Apple’s Find My network doesn’t do (yet):
This is a first-of-its-kind safety protection that makes unwanted tracking to a private location, like your home, more difficult. By default, the Find My Device network requires multiple nearby Android devices to detect a tag before reporting its location to the tag’s owner. Our research found that the Find My Device network is most valuable in public settings like cafes and airports, where there are likely many devices nearby. By implementing aggregation before showing a tag’s location to its owner, the network can take advantage of its biggest strength – over a billion Android devices that can participate. This helps tag owners find their lost devices in these busier locations while prioritizing safety from unwanted tracking near private locations. In less busy areas, last known location and Nest finding are reliable ways to locate items.
Dave Kleidermacher
In addition, when you’re at home, your devices won’t contribute any information either. There’s a whole bunch of other things in there, too, so head on over if you’re curious.
So if somebody steals my luggage and brings it home to search through later, their devices won’t help me locate my stolen luggage?
Well, I can see how it can also be used for nefarious purposes – leave a tag hidden on somebody’s front porch, and if Google can report your device you know somebody is home.
Drumhellar,
You can probably disable the tracking feature on your own phones so they don’t participate. Years ago when trackers were novel, my brother bought a bicycle with a tracker. I don’t know the brand or kind of tracker it was. But anyway it got stolen and he tracked it to a building, but police would do nothing about it, which brings up a different point: even if you know where your property is, it might not even matter unless you turn to vigilante justice.
Yeah there’s just no denying the nefarious applications are just as viable as legitimate applications.
Here’s a generic article about protecting yourself, but protecting yourself from this 24/7 may not be realistic.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-protect-yourself-against-airtag-and-tile-stalking
Apple airtags have stalker protections, but in the tests I’ve seen they can be hard to trigger and they had no trouble using them nefariously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHgdOGH08S0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddc0a7uBmIw
Maybe google’s could alert sooner. But these stalker notifications, to the extent that they work at all, will clue the criminals themselves to the fact that the property they are stealing has a tracker on it. Honestly the more popular these become, the less useful they might become as criminals become wise to the trackers and learn how to deal with them.
It’s probably more useful to track things that are accidentally misplaced, but even so I’d rather have a local tracking solution than constantly sending our locations to big tech companies.