Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tacLog 1594 days ago
Do you have to reveal who you are to Apple to use an airtag though?

Or with decent operational security can you purchase and activate airtags in an untraceable way?

If you can that undermines your point, however if you can't then your making a very good point.

2 comments

If a stalker is willing to buy a burner iOS device (since that's the means of viewing Airtag data), associate it with an untraceable email/iCloud, and only leave the device's location services on in locations that aren't tied to their identity (since Apple also knows where the tracking phone is), then 'having access to Airtags' probably isn't the 'make or break' factor in whether or not they will stalk someone.

If a user has that level of tech savvy, there are plenty of other cellular GPS devices they could use.

> If a user has that level of [spare cash],

I suspect they could get several cellular GPS devices for the cost of an iPhone + some AirTags - meaning they could easily offer up one or two sacrificial ones for easy finding in order to hide a smaller one "in plain sight" (as it were.)

Or they could just hire a private detective to do some stalking for them.

Or someone even less scrupulous for even less money, I'd assume?

> Do you have to reveal who you are to Apple to use an airtag though?

People are subjecting themselves to voluntary surveillance and it's amazing to watch, Apple's promise to cooperate with "Law Enforcement" in most of the world was chilling. J Edgar Hoover would have creamed his pants - "Did you say MLK Jr. has several airtags? I want daily updates on where he's going."