Received notice of a change to the service in my inbox today. Seems icky to me.

Devices in the network use Bluetooth to scan for nearby items. If other devices detect your items, they’ll securely send the locations where the items were detected to Find My Device. Your Android devices will do the same to help others find their offline items when detected nearby

Your devices’ locations will be encrypted using the PIN, pattern, or password for your Android devices. They can only be seen by you and those you share your devices with in Find My Device. They will not be visible to Google or used for other purposes.

ETA: here’s the link to opt out: opt out of the network

  • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    272·
    6 months ago

    I’m driven by convenience, FOMO, and peer pressure, so go ahead and destroy my privacy and security, Google!

    Snark aside, it seems like a really neat useful little idea that will 100% be used for some creepy corporate shit.

    • s38b35M5@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      133·
      6 months ago

      We can already tell you the age, gender, hobbies, kinks, frequently visited spots and how long they stay there, who goes with them and who they meet, what they think about, when they go to sleep, but wouldn’t you also like to know where they are and who they’re near when their devices are offline with Bluetooth on? We can do that now too! Creepy? No! They think it’s so they can [checks notes] find their device even if its offline.

      -Google probably

  • tyrant@lemmy.world
    191·
    6 months ago

    A few days ago my wife’s phone said there was an unknown airtag with her. It turned out to be an airtag in a kids friend backpack but for once it seemed like Google was looking out for the best interest of someone. It could have easily been a stalker trying to find where we lived.

      • berkeleyblue@lemmy.world
        22·
        6 months ago

        For AirTags, those notifications should only start if:

        • The AirTag has not been with his owner for more than 4 hours
        • The AirTag is moving
        • The AirTag persistently stays close to another device that isn’t associated with the AirTag owners Apple ID

        For Teachers this shouldn’t be an issue unless their students have tecb challenged parent. AirTags arent meant for tracking kids. If it’s their AirTag, they are with them and the alarm won’t trigger. If they have a shared AirTag (possible since iOS 17) they are with theyr own AirTag and the alarm won’t trigger. If they got one that is ONLY registered to their parents, then it will trigger the Anti Stalking feature and those parents should be educated on their problematic use of an AirTag.

        Those kids should have an Apple Watch, all the tracking options for parents, none of the hassle of stalking alerts. Or they now just use a shared AirTag which they would then also need to have an Apple ID enabled device with them. So the watch is usually the more afordable and versatile option.

        • Clent@lemmy.world
          6·
          6 months ago

          You think parents should get their kindergartens an Apple Watch?

          Perhaps you think I’m referring to children past elementary school.

          Regardless of what Apple says AirTags are and are not for people will use them however they see fit. For example, they are not for tracking pets but there are pet collars designed to hold an AirTag so clearly many people are ignoring Apple.

          Attaching an AirTag to a child’s backpack seems like an obvious way to track one’s child, even if it’s not supported use case.

          The purpose isn’t track things you know how to find but to find things that get lost; like children. There is also enough paranoia about kidnapping that I’m sure there are at least a few children in every classroom that are tagged.

  • Blxter@lemmy.zipEnglish
    17·
    6 months ago

    This is probably an unpopular opinion especially on this sub and something that will probably never happen realistically with the way the world is going but it is an extremely cool feature. If this was not done by companys that already harvest data etc and was as private as something like this can be such as your device communication to another device has a uuid that does not tie back to “you” if that makes sense or something not sure. Because there are some use cases that could be extremely good such as the one comment here about stalkers etc.

    • spaphy@lemmy.ml
      4·
      6 months ago

      I agree with this and I’m glad we have graphene OS at the same time for the moments when I no longer want this to be the default option.

      I hope to see more reasonable takes like this - weighted with reality, not just reinforcing what people want to hear.

    • s38b35M5@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      91·
      6 months ago

      Quite true. As a Google Fi subscriber since 2015, I still rely on them for that service, but I’ve weaned off everything else to the extent that I can. There was a time that I thought the value outweighed the spying, but its impossible for me to maintain that delusion now.

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
        3·
        6 months ago

        We’re on the same boat with Fi. I only use it because it’s the only service I know about that I can pause and not have to pay when I’m not in the US. I don’t live in the US, but I but do have to travel there very frequently, so it’s an acceptable trade-off for me. And it works perfectly fine on GrapheneOS even With GMS off.

        • s38b35M5@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          I’ve been out of the US since late '22 and they still haven’t cut my data or sent one email about it. I expected to lose it after 90 days. I get a google play services error once in a while about Fi needing it to have all permissions, but I don’t have any problems leaving them off. My next install of lineage I’m going to try no GApps and see if it still works. I know the LOS team say you need it for Fi.

          • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 months ago

            Yeah. I also use it when I travel to Canada, Ecuador, Colombia and México, and it just works. I’m telling you, it’s been a life saver because the roaming fees from my country’s providers are ridiculously high.

            I’ve been expecting Google to kill it like they tend to do with everything people start to like, but it’s been over 7 years already, and still going.

            I have no idea what the impact would be with LOS, but with GrapheneOS, I don’t even get error messages. Granted, I did use play services while setting up the Fi app, then un-installed it all and update from Aurora. Flawless.