alt Hacker NewsSo they made it impossible to remove speaker, destroying its usability as a theft tracking device. One could add an airtag with a removed speaker on a bike/scooter/car and then localize it in case of theft. With the new airtag any thief will be quickly notified they are tracked.
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That is also true for thieves looking to steal your vehicle by finding where you live, so it is an unfortunate intersection of crime and crime prevention.
There are much better options for vehicle tracking and theft prevention so I would personally prefer it to be harder for thieves or stalkers to track using these very easy to get devices.
We don't need to risk having people stalked/tracked just so you can play pretend sheriff.
Apple has removed all mention of theft tracking from their site once they added the stalking protection. Airtag is for people who lose things, not finding stolen things. You have less than an hour before an Airtag alerts a thief they are being tracked.
> Find My makes it easy to locate AirTag, Apple devices, and compatible third-party devices
The other side of this is that it can't be used to slip into someone's purse as they leave the bar and then be tracked unknowingly.
Apple leaves the door open for manufacturers to implement an anti-theft device into their goods that address both concerns.
Apple decided its better to not enable stalkers and get bad press for that. From tne point of view of the tracker anti theft and stalking are kinda the same. This mirrors yesterdays one about efuses btw
There's an inherent conflict between use as a theft tracking device, and use as a stalking device. Both situations are pretty indistinguishable. Apple is prioritizing reducing the AirTag's utility to stalkers.