Bike security and stalkers dream....

[Bender]

Apple air tags are going to be widely available, if your not up on these they are low power Bluetooth devices that use apple devices to share a location.

 

The good 

 

They are cheap and small, have a built in speaker, battery can be replaced and can last upto a year.

 

The bad

Can be used for stalking, your I phone or apple device will pass on the location of any air tag that it picks up and you won't know and can't stop it.

 

The speaker can be disabled or positioned so it can not be audible, all security warnings can be disabled on the owners phone paired to that device.  If you have an iPhone it will warn you after 3 days you may be being tracked, it won't give any more details.

 

They will not work with android so no warnings to those.

 

 

So a great cheap way to protect stuff long term with some huge glaring security issues, you can use a Bluetooth scanner on Android but the air tags roll the device string so as to make it harder to track.

 

Other devices like tile are available but I think the apple network is going to make use much greater.

 

So someone sat in a cafe might be responsible for locating your stolen bike or they could be a link in a murder all without knowing....

[JackieOWheels]

I think the bad outweighs the goods from your description @Bender

Questions is are you going to get one? I have an iPhone but I don't think I would buy one.

[Bender]

7 hours ago, JackieOWheels said:

I think the bad outweighs the goods from your description @Bender

Questions is are you going to get one? I have an iPhone but I don't think I would buy one.

I don't have an I phone so no, I don't think they have for 1 sec considered the downside of these, going to be great for twats wanting to steal your nice bike or fancy car too, simply pop one into or on a vehicle and find where it lives the same day.

 

Tile have had similar out for a while but it's the coverage of the apple network that's going to make these great or disaster depending on use.

 

[Jerry1111]

11 hours ago, Bender said:

Apple air tags are going to be widely available, if your not up on these they are low power Bluetooth devices that use apple devices to share a location.

 

The good 

 

They are cheap and small, have a built in speaker, battery can be replaced and can last upto a year.

 

The bad

Can be used for stalking, your I phone or apple device will pass on the location of any air tag that it picks up and you won't know and can't stop it.

 

The speaker can be disabled or positioned so it can not be audible, all security warnings can be disabled on the owners phone paired to that device.  If you have an iPhone it will warn you after 3 days you may be being tracked, it won't give any more details.

 

They will not work with android so no warnings to those.

 

 

So a great cheap way to protect stuff long term with some huge glaring security issues, you can use a Bluetooth scanner on Android but the air tags roll the device string so as to make it harder to track.

 

Other devices like tile are available but I think the apple network is going to make use much greater.

 

So someone sat in a cafe might be responsible for locating your stolen bike or they could be a link in a murder all without knowing....

 

11 hours ago, Bender said:

 

So a great cheap way to protect stuff long term with some huge glaring security issues, you can use a Bluetooth scanner on Android but the air tags roll the device string so as to make it harder to track.

That's a feature of BT, Apple didn't do anything. Until you get paired with a device, MAC address gets randomised precisely for that reason.

 

For really expensive bikes someone should start working on trackers using LEO  satellites. Some IOT sat com offerings are cheap enough to do that (few tens of $ per year for ability to send 50-150 bytes per day). That hardware is also cheap, nothing even remotely approaching costs of Iridium and the likes.

 

[onesea]

16 minutes ago, Jerry1111 said:

 

That's a feature of BT, Apple didn't do anything. Until you get paired with a device, MAC address gets randomised precisely for that reason.

 

For really expensive bikes someone should start working on trackers using LEO  satellites. Some IOT sat com offerings are cheap enough to do that (few tens of $ per year for ability to send 50-150 bytes per day). That hardware is also cheap, nothing even remotely approaching costs of Iridium and the likes.

 

The problem with trackers using GPS is gps signal not very robust.  It can be electronically jammed or stopped by even a biscuit tin, as any Geo Cacher knows thick heavy tree cover can give issues.

 

The advantage of Bluetooth/WiFi you can use 3rd party’s position to give location. Although Bluetooth range can also be poor.

[JackieOWheels]

1 hour ago, onesea said:

The problem with trackers using GPS is gps signal not very robust.  It can be electronically jammed or stopped by even a biscuit tin, as any Geo Cacher knows thick heavy tree cover can give issues.

 

The advantage of Bluetooth/WiFi you can use 3rd party’s position to give location. Although Bluetooth range can also be poor.

 

Yeah, the range for bluetooth is typically 10metres.

[onesea]

2 hours ago, JackieOWheels said:

 

Yeah, the range for bluetooth is typically 10metres.

If your BT  headset is not working very well try putting your phone in your pocket near your headset...  

Even the human body can cause issues, data transfer rates are rubbish as well even with good reception.

[Bender]

7 hours ago, JackieOWheels said:

 

Yeah, the range for bluetooth is typically 10metres.

These swanky little things are using wideband tech and range is estimated 800feet 

 

Even if you half that your still probably within range of an iPhone.

 

[JackieOWheels]

On 24/05/2021 at 19:24, Bender said:

These swanky little things are using wideband tech and range is estimated 800feet 

 

Even if you half that your still probably within range of an iPhone.

 

 

Ooft, just when I thought Apple was trying to protect privacy for users it goes and releases something like this. Lol.