AirTags can track Android users continuously for 3 days

AirTags can track Android users continuously for 3 days

Regarding whether AirTags can be used to track people, my thoughts have gone through the following changes: “Cannot track iPhone users but can track Android users” –> “None can be tracked” –> “All can be tracked”

False perception

Apple stated at the press conference that if there is an AirTag that does not belong to you and moves with you, your iPhone will receive a notification and warn you.

So I thought at first that AirTags can’t track iPhone users, but it can track Android users.

After the press conference, Apple’s official website released AirTags instructions: if an AirTags is not with the owner for a period of time, when it moves suddenly, it will automatically make a sound so that Android users can also hear it.

So I thought AirTags can neither track iPhone users nor Android users, but I seem to be wrong again.

Real details

Fast Company interviewed two Apple executives, Kaiann Drance, vice president of marketing, and Ron Huang, senior director. This report revealed the following information.

1) Only iPhone users running iOS 14.5 or above can receive warning notifications that unfamiliar AirTags is tracking you. Users who don’t like to upgrade the system are easily tracked.

2)What is worrying is when the warning notice is issued: According to the interview in the article, AirTags will not notify users until they return home or arrive at certain locations. iPhone will automatically infer where your home is, open “Contacts-My Business Card”, it will show the location of your home it inferred here, or open “Settings-Privacy-Location Services-System Services-Important Locations”, it will also be here Shows the location of your home estimated by the iPhone and other places you frequently visit.

3)Does this mean that if I secretly stuff an AirTags into a stranger’s backpack, then I can know where TA lives?

4) When you come home and find someone using AirTags to follow you, the first thing you need to do is to find this AirTags, right?But you may not be able to find it.If you are more vigilant, click immediately after seeing the notification, the phone will automatically open the “Find” application, and display a play button, click it will let AirTags sound to help you locate, after finding it, remove the battery to terminate the tracking.

If you are unlucky and happen to run into AirTags and automatically change the ID, then you can’t let it play a sound. For your iPhone, the AirTags after changing the ID are not the same AirTags, so it will think that no AirTags are tracking you. Only when this AirTags follow you to the next location, the iPhone may re-issue a warning notification.

5) Why does AirTags automatically change ID? Because if your AirTags ID does not change, the anonymity of this AirTags cannot be guaranteed. This ID needs to be shared to unfamiliar iPhones around you via Bluetooth to help you locate AirTags. If your AirTags never update the ID, then hackers can save all the AirTags ID sent actively, and you can do something based on this ID in the future Bad things, such as scanning a circle to determine if other people’s AirTags are nearby.

6) But, didn’t it say that AirTags will automatically beep? Yes, but according to the interview:Only when AirTags have left the owner for 3 days, will they make a sound!

7)Does this mean that I can use AirTags to track an Android user for 3 days?Apple said that it may extend or shorten this time through software upgrades in the future.

to sum up

Apple needs to strike a reasonable balance in the three aspects of “protecting the owner’s privacy, protecting the privacy of others, and effectively tracking items.”

If AirTags would easily send warning notifications to unfamiliar iPhones passing by, there might be a new profession dedicated to stealing AirTags? Although AirTags has a so-called pairing lock, even if someone else gets it, it can’t be re-paired for him, but people always have a way to use it.

If AirTags make a sound easily, such as making a sound when the owner leaves the owner for 10 hours, then the owner goes to work and the family moves an item with this AirTags, which may also trigger the alarm mechanism, which can easily cause interference to the user.

In fact, trackers have existed for a long time, and we can even see news in the newspaper that xx people found their other half cheating through the trackers, but the trackers are very far away from the lives of ordinary people until AirTags is released.

Apple’s influence is great, and AirTags will be widely used. Apple’s balance of AirTags may give people a chance. I think it is necessary to let more people know the details of the working mechanism of AirTags and be careful to be tracked by AirTags.

Finally, if you find an item lost by someone else, there is an AirTags hanging on the item, then you can scan this AirTags with any NFC-enabled mobile phone. If this AirTags is turned on by the owner in Lost Mode, you will be able to find the other party after scanning. I hope you can help the other party retrieve the item.

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