AirTags are a worthless vehicle theft tracking device. If the thief has an iPhone, he'll be alerted too the moment he leaves with the vehicle. The "feature" is there to prevent stalking. If an unknown air tag is moving with you, you'll get a notice.
And after three days it'll start beeping for everyone to hear who's nearby- including Android users.
Some interesting details (at least to me) on how the alerts work for users travelling with an unknown Airtag:
" In a
statement to Fast Company, regarding concerns about how AirTags could be used for unwanted tracking, Apple says that the iPhone alert for an unknown AirTag will be triggered once a user arrives at either their home address or a location the iPhone has learned to be frequently visited.
Apple has built some protections into this system. If you are an iPhone user, for instance, and someone has placed an AirTag on your person, your phone will eventually alert you that an AirTag that isn’t yours has been found “moving with you.” Apple didn’t clarify how quickly or often this alert will arrive, but it did share that it will occur when you arrive at your home (the address stored in your Apple “Me” card) or at certain other locations that your phone has learned you frequent over time. Apple declined to disclose further specifics, citing the interest of public safety.
While not entirely clear based on the statement and report, if a user is, for example, traveling and not at their typical home address, the iPhone will still likely send an alert after a certain period of time, which has yet to be disclosed. The home address trigger, described by
Fast Company, is likely not the first metric the iPhone will use to alert a user, but rather a safeguard in place in case the "extended period of time" has elapsed without an alert."
Link here:
Apple has shared considerable information regarding the safety mechanisms in place within its Find My network and AirTags, that prevent unwanted...
www.macrumors.com
Seems the alerting is a bit of an unknown on when and how it happens and looks to require a "home" location to even be triggered. Since the feature has just been released (and requires IOS update for it to work at all), its most likely somewhat of a work in progress still. Seems it also uses connections to other nearby Apple devices via BT to even update its location to the Apple FindMe network, which is what gives the tag its location to track. Thats if this article/quote is to be believed:
"Finally, the tracker was detected four miles away in front of his school. Relieved, I decided more information in this case was worse; I'd go back to just tracking my keys. Apple later told me the delay was due to the tracker needing to communicate with Bluetooth on other iOS devices in the Find My network along the bus route before the AirTag's location could be updated to iCloud and the app."
I clipped a keychain with one of Apple's tiny new Bluetooth trackers, AirTags, onto my son's book bag and waved goodbye to him on the school bus. I watched on my iPhone's Find My app as the bus stopped at a light a few blocks down from our street.
www.cnn.com
Using an Airtag to track a vehicle is an interesting idea, but exactly what Apple designed the Airtag to not do. Seems that because there are some timing issues with how the alerts work, these may give you enough time if your truck is stolen to get an idea of where it is and might provide a first line of defense for finding it. But its likely a non-starter for actually full on vehicle tracking. Interesting though nonetheless. I am sure as humans tend to do, folks will find inventive ways to take a simple key tracking device and turn it into something that will spark all sorts of privacy concerns in the coming months. Curious what happens when someone gets on a bus with an iphone and encounters a bunch of unknown AirTags. Total electronic chaos?
Would be interesting to see for those of you who have purchased these already for this purpose to see how well they actually work for this purpose. Post up results here.
devil
