The only thing holding back Google's Find My Device network now is Apple
The only thing holding back Google's Find My Device network now is Apple
Google's Find My Device network will turn Android devices into a massive location tracking network. But it's being held back by Apple.
I've been waiting for this for ages, I still think letting your main competitor decide when you can release a product is just absurd.
Apple didn't give a shit about android users getting tracked when they launched air tags.
Then again they aren't Apple. Google doesn't have the Apple's accidental perception of being privacy oriented. Which is nonsense in reality but nevertheless people will look at the exact same solution from Google and interpret it as another privacy invading spying device.
In addition, Google has created and contributed to a shit ton of open source software that has required collaboration with communities and companies, all of which requires going the extra mile to get others onboard.
Meanwhile my Pixel never detected the air tag that's on my keychain since September and so it's traveling with the phone all the time. It should detect and warn me...
Mine never warned me about 2 airtags in the house, until I drove on a trip with them in the luggage.
But yours must have been traveling with you, maybe there's some algorithm that decides that they have been around so long that they belong to you.
It’s for this reason that Google in late July announced that it was delaying the launch of the Find My Device network. Google said that it would be “working in partnership with Apple to help finalize the joint unwanted tracker alert specification by the end of this year.”
Delaying it because right now iOS can't detect unwanted trackers and google and apple are working together to create a spec for it for them.
Apple was waiting for a production implementation of the spec which was published in December. The ball has been in their court since then.
I don't really understand why Google needs to wait to release.
I've had a Chipolo preorder since last July.
They'll come any day now 🥲
So if phones essentially are BLE beacons I fail how Apple/Google plan to detect unwanted trackers.
All I have to do is register a new playstore account and use that to track a specific tag/phone.
Someone care to explain what I'm missing here?
I think it's supposed to make your phone notify you if you move and there is another unknown BLE device constantly moving with you. That means someone put one of those small keyfobs in your backpack. It'd be a known BLE device if you put it there yourself and added it to your account.
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Third party apps like AirGuard will track all BLE devices and beacons around you, recording the detection location on a map. I just checked mine and it's full of random iPhones, "Find My" tags, AirPods, and just 1 Tile
It also has a separate risk analysis section for tracking tags whose identifiers may be randomized for privacy