Recently, the internet has been buzzing about Apple’s AirTag product. If you are familiar with Tile, it is the same idea. You can keep track of things that you might lose like your keys. The idea is very attractive. I recently lost a set of keys, and this kind of product is very appealing. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t lost their keys at least once. Some of us are overachievers and we lose them weekly if not daily.
The really fascinating thing about Apple’s AirTag is the Anti-Stalking feature. You heard me right. Stalking!!! As the Washington Post reported, the Anti-Stalking features just aren’t good enough. If someone plants an Apple AirTag on you to track your location, Apple will not alert you to the tracker for 3 days. Now if you are like me, you are a creature of habit. You go back to your home everyday. You go to your job regularly.
Three days is a crap ton of time to track someone’s patterns. And, the reality is that it gets much worst. Seriously!!! The notification that you are being tracked only functions if you have an Apple iPhone. So for the 50% of people who have an Android phone, you can be tracked indefinitely by an Apple AirTag without ever knowing it. And this leads me to the craziest change in thinking ever.
Think about the idea of being forced onto Apple’s Ecosystem due to fearing for your safety. I can’t imagine this is the kind of customer relationship Apple wants. Apple would be holding people hostage to their fears, and they wouldn’t actually be inspiring brand loyalty at all. While I’m a non-existent voice on the internet, I can’t help but wish for Apple to come to their senses about this decision. I don’t actually think that the product should have to go away, but they should be responsible for protecting not only their users but users of Android devices.
I’m an Android user. And I am literally concerned about my safety without having an Apple iPhone. I really pray this was not done on purpose, but this horrific reality represents a real debate in my mind as to whether I should switch to Apple just so I get some form of notification that I’m being stalked. Even though 3 days of being stalked is way too long. My hope is that Apple will realize they have to use some Machine Learning in your phone to track the behavior of AirTags that seem to move with you that are not registered to the specific phone. You could do a simple Anomaly Detection model that notices when your phones movements relative to a specific AirTag are unusual. This could be used as both an Anti-Stalking feature but a Anti-Theft feature at the same time. It would be wonderful for my phone to alert me when my wallet starts going in the opposite direction from me. Why should I have to realize something is missing before I start to look for it. They could make it where I’m alerted to the fact that my item is moving strangely relative to my phone’s location. Apple should be chomping at the bit to solve this. I honestly can’t understand why such a smart technology company didn’t think of a better solution before releasing it to the public.
And just to up the ante, what happens when Google does their version of this. We know that Apple is often the leader in this space. When they do something, others follow. Will we all be forced to live with two devices? Each device purchased out of fear? Hell no! If Apple and Android can’t work together to ensure everyone is safe from being Stalked by this technology, we need regulators to force them to do it. We can’t have a world where Apple creates dangerous technology and only protects its customers from it. While I see the inherent value in the AirTag, I can’t support Apple in its lackadaisical approach to Stalking. This needs fixing immediately!!!
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