Theft-tracking is sort of an "off-label" use for AirTags, from Apple's perspective.
They'd rather make AirTags less generally useful than make them both more generally useful + open to stalking occurrences and lawsuits.
They'd rather make AirTags less generally useful than make them both more generally useful + open to stalking occurrences and lawsuits.
Of course I'm not saying Apple shouldn't try to protect people from stalkers using their control over their products, I just don't see why it would make Appld responsible if someone misused their products.
If AirTags stopped notifying users they're being tracked, then AirTags would also be meant for tracking people.
What?? That's like by not including a sound device that screams "look out, you're being murdered!" on every hammer when it's swung, manufacturers are saying their hammers are also intended for murder.
Now that Apple has this feature, sure, removing it might raise some eyebrows, but the theft tracking use-case is so obvious and useful that no judge would ever believe that Apple did this specifically to enable stalking.
There's also no reasonable standard by which you can claim guns are being made to murder people but AirTags are not being made to stalk people. A vanishingly small fraction of total sales ever goes towards either of these undesirable use cases.
The smart move here is to get your risk models in order and stop worrying about either of these things.
- Me or other people need to be around (since airtags jump off others' devices)
This removes use cases like tracking lost marine goods, tracking lost drones, etc.
- Item being tracked has to be big enough to be worth the extra size/weight of the long life battery wrapper
This removes most common use cases like wallets, remotes, etc.
- Item being tracked has to be something you actually lose w/o wrongdoing. Makes sense for backpacks, purses, parked cars.
But, most capital equipment wouldnt be "lost" it would be stolen, so that is out.
https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/20-surprisingly-practical...
I use an airtag for my wallet and apple remote.
Plus one less card space in it, even if it did work.
I also don't see my cat wearing that thing either. Maybe a large dog.
But things like wallets, remotes, cats, dogs, are usually in your possession frequently and only lost for short periods of time before you notice.
Luggage would be a good use case, and possibly bikes and other large equipment. But I would opt for something more discreet vs a larger battery.