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Apple AirTag Leads Authorities to Find $16,000 Worth of Stolen Luggage
A common occurrence turned into a criminal investigation shortly after a traveler reported missing luggage which was said to have $1,600 worth of items in it. Thanks to an Apple Air Tag (an apple product used as a tracking device) in her suitcase, she was able to identify where the baggage was. The air tag showed up as "last active" in the area of Kathy Court in Mary Esther, FL. (aeroxplorer.com) और अधिक...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Reads like an ad from Apple. Now Apple not only knows your every step but your luggage too@! An inexpensive wifi and gps jammer will solve the problem of you being tracked, even your luggage.
Well, except, and unless I'm missing the point, isn't the Apple Air Tag's sole purpose tracking? So, why jam it?
Or a faraday bag....
There are numerous brands of luggage GPS trackers on the market. But if Apple was paying for the news release, I don't blame them for championing their brand. I've written local news releases before and the best news outlets always modified the content so it was less biased. Most however, if they ran it all, just ran it like I wrote it.
Apple Air Tags are not GPS trackers. They're low energy Bluetooth beacons. Every so often they simply send out a signal announcing their presence and their unique ID. Nearby Apple devices (e.g., iPhones) hear those beacons and send their ID and some location information back to Apple. There are layers of cryptography to protect the privacy surrounding the device (e.g., iPhone) that helps out in this process. So no information about the location of the iPhone (and its owner) is retained or retrievable.
The fact that this is a low energy Bluetooth beacon means the battery can last for *years*.
Compare that with a device that actually is a GPS receiver. Not only does it have to power up and wait for signals from enough satellites to arrive to determine its location, it then has to transmit that information back to the owner somehow, likely via the cell phone network. That too has energy costs. Neither of those is low-energy, so any such device might only be able to last on the order of days or be attached to a very large battery.
What's interesting is that Air Tag technology relies on iPhones and iPads and Macs being so pervasive around the inhabited globe.
The fact that this is a low energy Bluetooth beacon means the battery can last for *years*.
Compare that with a device that actually is a GPS receiver. Not only does it have to power up and wait for signals from enough satellites to arrive to determine its location, it then has to transmit that information back to the owner somehow, likely via the cell phone network. That too has energy costs. Neither of those is low-energy, so any such device might only be able to last on the order of days or be attached to a very large battery.
What's interesting is that Air Tag technology relies on iPhones and iPads and Macs being so pervasive around the inhabited globe.
Thank you for some clarity on the technology of Air Tags. I love this site because I learn things.
Thanks for that clarification. So if the thief who stole the luggage used an iPhone, then his own device could have been part of the location information being sent back to the owner. That's poetic!
So my corrected post would read: There are numerous brands of luggage locators on the market. But if Apple was paying for the news release, I don't blame them for championing their technology.
So my corrected post would read: There are numerous brands of luggage locators on the market. But if Apple was paying for the news release, I don't blame them for championing their technology.
Interestingly--In the aforementioned incident,I was getting the message that the battery was low, but it still worked for weeks after that. When I finally got it back I did replace the battery.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/08/19/apple-airtag-stolen-luggage-florida/7841817001/