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Comment by pnw | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that the OP doesn’t consistently get the “stalker” warning. I see it consistently within 30-45 mins when I’m with a dog whose tag is registered to someone else and they leave my vicinity.

It’s a shame Apple had to kill the theft use case to prevent stalking. I assume thieves are well aware of this now.

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New York didn't get that memo: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nyc-distribute-apple-airtags...

I use AirTags to help keep track of my young kids at busy places, and the "safety" measures interfere with that as well (when thinking of a hypothetical abduction).

Personally I think the stalking fear is overblown, and it's unfortunate that they interfere with other use cases to prevent that one.

> Personally I think the stalking fear is overblown

I used to think that, but I know one woman who was stalked with an AirTag and I personally know too many women who were stalked even before these tags came along.

The one thing I have learned in life: as a large male, I simply view the world through a completely different lens than a small woman does.

There are many things that we accept in the US that have both beneficial and harmful uses: guns, cars, knives, alcohol, Tylenol. Many of those kinds of things disproportionately impact one sex (or category) of people, but that their overall utility outweighs the risks and downsides. Our solution is to ban the abuses (murder, assault, stalking) but not the product itself. I don’t see why this one needs special treatment.

> I don’t see why this one needs special treatment.

All the other things you list have special treatment. (Apart from tylenol?)

I would take a $1000 bet with you that stalking cases by a known adversary outnumber child abduction by strangers. Not sure how to find the stats though.

Not exactly the stat you wanted but more than 99% of kidnappings in the USA are by a parent who lost custody or a family member.

See https://www.terrycralle.com/missing-children-statistics/

I can tell that’s the case without looking at any stats, I’ve been monitoring AMBER alerts here in Canada for the past 4 years, and 100% of the cases are just parents taking their kids back, wasting a whole system resources for that ..

There’s a study that proposes AMBER is mostly crime control theater. It’s also fairly redundant given widespread ALPR.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249772258_Child_abd...

AMBER is generally a waste because it's oriented towards kidnappings by strangers. But kidnappings by parents aren't always no big deal: parents sometimes lose custody because they're a serious risk towards their children.

Talk to somebody who works at a women’s shelter. These days pretty much all domestic abuse involves a technological component, and tags are definitely included in that.

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