[swe_dima]

my parents live in Russia and my grandma has alzheimer's, so as a present "for her" I bought an airtag - so in case my mom loses grandma in a crowd she can be found.

Little did I know, GPS jammers around the city make my grandma appear 50km away.

Not Apple's fault of course.

[mig39]

AirTag itself doesn't have GPS, of course. It depends on the devices that communicate with the AirTag having precise location. IF you have a phone in Russia, are your maps apps off by 50km these days?

[somehnguy]

I would assume the inaccuracy is due to the various phones that pick up the airtag pings GPS being jammed, reporting AirTags nowhere near where they actually are.

[retired]

Makes sense. Would be pretty cool if Apple could find a way to correct GPS jamming using accelerometers and some logic. If your GPS location jump 50 kilometers in 2 minutes, ignore GPS and use cell tower + accelerometer. Maybe create some sort of mesh network, using other phones and nearby SSIDs to get a makeshift location positioning.

That does come with the risk of Tim Cook falling out of a window.

[kube-system]

Most current phones already use these techniques (and more) just simply to account for poor signals, which have long been an issue with GPS because signal strength and SNR are inherently very low.

[kylehotchkiss]

iPhone SE for next gift? it can snap back to correct location when the jammers are off or the phone infers location from tower etc

[opengrass]

The AirTag does not have a GPS receiver. When anyone's iPhone discovers the tag, it sends their device's location to Apple servers with "by the way, this AirTag is in range." If cellular location is inaccurate then good luck.

[etchalon]

Wait what

[gusgus01]

Russia does pretty widespread GPS jamming and spoofing both in their country as well as across the Baltics and Nordics (and others). If a phone is receiving bad GPS data when it reports sensing the tag, the tag location will reflect that bad GPS data and not reality.

[Bigpet]

Shouldn't most comodity GPS receivers also be GLONASS compatible (I get that Galileo is more niche and might not be included).

Does the Sensor Apple uses not use GLONASS in Russia? Or is it cheapo Android Phones picking up the tag and then sending GPS coords into cloud?

edit: Nvm, I might be dumb, I guess unless your jamming includes all commodity GNSS it's pretty useless.

[nasretdinov]

They have had GLONASS for ages too, but obviously they have to jam everything, otherwise it's not going to prevent drones and such from working

[sofixa]

> Or is it cheapo Android Phones picking up the tag and then sending GPS coords into cloud?

AirTags have no integration with Android devices. There's a shitty app from Apple you can install that allows you to scan for AirTags nearby, one shot. It's supposedly against stalkers, but it's practically useless. There a bunch of other community apps with varying features like finding and notifying you there's an AirTag nearby. But you can't even track your own AirTags from an Android device, because Apple have decided you must do it from an iDevice. No browser, no Android app. You can check your iPhone's location via the browser, but not the AirTag.

The Android ecosystem has an alternative thing, but depending on the phone manufacturer you have to opt in to your device being used to track trackers around you.

When I travel to places with low iPhone market share, I always have one tracker of each ecosystem, just in case.

[Bigpet]

Oh, thank for the correction. I must've muddled it up in my mind with the contact tracing integration that had during Covid.

[etchalon]

Thanks for explanation. I had absolutely no awareness GPS jamming was a thing, let alone at scale.

[jerlam]

The United States (who created and operates GPS) also has the ability to make civilian GPS receivers in a specific area or region area less accurate, in case of war. I would assume that other countries' systems (Russia, China, maybe not EU) also have this ability.

GPS was primarily developed as a military technology. It was intentionally inaccurate for all civilians up until the year 2000.

[Scoundreller]

Most of the time people say “GPS” they really mean any of the several GNSS systems, which also include: GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, and BeiDou

While they’re all susceptible to jamming, one system getting shutdown by its operator means most modern devices can shift to the others for most applications. Not unusual for consumer devices to support multiple (but dunno how they handle disagreements)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation_device

https://www.xda-developers.com/apple-iphone-14-gps-support/#...

[swe_dima]

my runner friends hate it, suddenly your Garmin can't show your pace and distance properly. (I am very much aware it's a 1st world problem to have in times of war)

[dmix]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasukha

[vladak]

see e.g. Who cares about the Baltic jammer ? https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-who-cares-about-the-baltic-jamme...

[snthd]

https://gpsjam.org/