[GeorgeTirebiter]

It's the principle: other people's tags get to commandeer resources from 'my phone' without me giving permission. Unless somewhere in the iPhone fine print it say something like "by using an iPhone, you are implicitly agreeing to become part of Apple's Global BLE Network" --- well, if not that, I'm not sure how Apple gets away with this.

[ylk]

> Any iOS, iPadOS or macOS device with “offline finding” enabled in Find My settings can act as a “finder device”.

https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/security/sec6cbc80fd0/...

Open the Settings app and search for "Find My". You'll find the setting. Or follow this: Settings->Apple ID->Find My->Find My iPhone->Find My network

There's some explanation as to what it does and you'll be able to opt out if you don't like it. (Though you won't even see the "Find My network" setting if you had "Find My" disabled anyway)

[AlphaSite]

It also helps find your phone if you loose it. So everyone wins.

[GeorgeTirebiter]

Yes, and... you are 'automatically opted in' and you have to disable this if you do not want to opt in via Settings->Apple ID->Find My->Find My iPhone->Find My network (That is pretty darn buried IMHO, but not germaine).

I'm actually quite shocked folks on here do not appreciate that the 'default' is opted-in, rather than not. When you own an Apple iPhone or iPad, you are part of Apple's network, and some of 'your' product is used to be in service of Apple's services. It's not like the requests to send 'user data' back to an app provider 'to help improve the experience' --- it's you Will send data back to Apple because that is the default -- and most people will surely not know the Settings->Apple ID->Find My->Find My iPhone->Find My network seequence.

Does this not seem somewhat fascistic? For the record, I have 2 iPads, and also for the record, I'm an Apple alum -- I have nothing but goodwill for the Company, however, this seems, to me, quite shady. (Downvoters, I'm expressing an opinion. Not polluting HN's polite discourse.)