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Wireless Networking Crime Privacy Apple

What Happens When You Use Bluetooth Tags to Track Your Stolen Items? 166

Posted by EditorDavid from the making-trackers dept.
"The third time my 1999 Honda Civic was stolen, I had a plan," writes Washington Post technology reporter Heather Kelly. Specifically, it was a tile tracker hidden in the car, "quietly transmitting its approximate location over Bluetooth." Later that day, I was across town hiding down the block from my own car as police detained the surprised driver. When the Tile app pinged me with a last known location, I showed up expecting the car to be abandoned. I quickly realized it was still in use, with one person looking through the trunk and another napping in the passenger seat, so I called the police...

In April of this year, one month after my car was stolen, Apple released the $29 AirTag, bringing an even more effective Bluetooth tracking technology to a much wider audience. Similar products from Samsung and smaller brands such as Chipolo are testing the limits of how far people will go to get back their stolen property and what they consider justice. "The technology has unintended consequences. It basically gives the owner the ability to become a mini surveillance operation," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at the American University Washington College of Law...

Apple has been careful to never say AirTags can be used to recover stolen property. The marketing for the device is light and wholesome, focusing on situations like lost keys between sofa cushions. The official tagline is "Lose your knack for losing things" and there's no mention of crime, theft or stealing in any of the ads, webpages or support documents. But in reality, the company has built a network that is ideal for that exact use case. Every compatible iPhone, iPad and Mac is being silently put to work as a location device without their owners knowing when it happens. An AirTag uses Bluetooth to send out a ping with its encrypted location to the closest Apple devices, which pass that information on to the Apple cloud. That spot is visible on a map in the Find My app. The AirTag owner can also turn on Lost Mode to get a notification the next time it's detected, as well as leave contact information in case it's found. Apple calls this the Find My network, and it also works for lost or stolen Apple devices and a handful of third-party products. The proliferation of compatible Apple devices — there are nearly a billion in the network around the world — makes Find My incredibly effective, especially in cities. (Apple device owners are part of the Find My network by default, but can opt out in settings, and the location information is all encrypted...)

All the tracker companies recommend contacting law enforcement first, which may sound logical until you find yourself waiting hours in a parking lot for officers to address a relatively low-priority crime, or having to explain to them what Bluetooth trackers are.
The Times shares stories of two people who tried using AirTags to track down their stolen property. One Seattle man tracked down his stolen electric bike — and ended up pedalling away furiously on the (now out of power) bicycle as the suspected thief chased after him.

And an Ohio man waited for hours in an unfamiliar drugstore parking lot for a response from the police, eventually travelling with them to the suspect's house — where his stolen laptop was returned to the police officer by a man holding two babies in his arms.

Some parents have even hidden them in their childrens' backpacks, and pet owners have hidden them in their pet's collars, the Times reports — adding that the EFF's director of cybersecurity sees another possibility. "The problem is it's impossible to build a tool that is designed to track down stolen items without also building the perfect tool for stalking."
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What Happens When You Use Bluetooth Tags to Track Your Stolen Items? More

What Happens When You Use Bluetooth Tags to Track Your Stolen Items?

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  • Better ways to prevent car theft/recovery (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @07:41AM (#61944243)
    Hidden kill switch, and a *real* GPS tracker that works over 4G. After getting your car stolen three times, you're probably doing something wrong.

    • Re:Better ways to prevent car theft/recovery (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @08:00AM (#61944265) Journal
      Depends on the car. The low-tech kind of car theft has been steadily declining here: thieves would grab a car that's easy to hotwire and easy to flog in Africa or Eastern Europe. It's all high-tech now: high-end fast cars that are stolen on demand, or stolen to use as a getaway vehicle. These crews do key cloning, RFID relaying, they know how to bypass common car alarms. A very common method of theft is to simply break into your home to get the car keys. The point is: GPS / 4G jammers are very much part of their toolkit, and rarely do any good.

      There are some success stories though. A car rental company had a high-end car stolen, and the GPS tracker placed it in (IIRC) Nigeria. They went there, and actually found it in pretty decent nick. A judge ordered the car returned to them. Sadly, while the paperwork was being processed, the car was held in a police impound lot, where it was completely stripped...
      • Sadly the 2 most common car thefts are 1) driver leaves keys in car 2) driver runs car early in morning to warm up and is stolen. The second is such an issue during winter months that many cities issued an ordinance against it without the aid of a remote car-start system. As for #1, it happened to my neighbor, not once, not twice, but three times his car was stolen that way. I honestly suspect the odds are profoundly against this happening by mere accident.

        • All that may be true and I'm willing to take it at face value but it's also true that high tech car theft has ballooned. These days you can just get on aliexpress or dealextreme or whatever and buy tools for performing replay attacks, for example, and many if not most auto security systems are vulnerable to such. Or you can buy digital unlocking tools supposedly only for locksmiths. With a facsimile of the vehicle scan tool (for example the VAG-COM cable for Audi/VW) you can swap to a used PCM and defeat the immobilizer. So once they are a few years old and tools have been made available, it's cheap and easy to steal even very high end and supposedly secure vehicles (with multi-module immobilizers.)

          • Without a doubt, but there is just so much crime of opportunity it casts a very big shadow on the high tech crime. Stolen vehicles have been found abandoned 10mi away in a public park some 30days later. It seems the motive was not a chop shop but criminal dumbassery. The people doing high-tech crime are smart enough to keep their incidents low enough to avoid the widespread public from sending in special weapons and tactics to effectively burn the nest. Its like home alarms. 90% of the break-ins occur thro

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Bert64 ( 520050 )

            Most high end cars depreciate in value significantly over a few years, to the extent that aside from certain rare/exotic models they simply wouldn't be worth stealing once they're a few years old.

            • Most high end cars depreciate in value significantly over a few years, to the extent that aside from certain rare/exotic models they simply wouldn't be worth stealing once they're a few years old.

              If you're expecting the stolen cars to be resold in their original market then you're right. However, this almost never happens. Instead they are either chopped for parts, or they are shipped to other countries where they're not normally available for sale. Those high end cars need parts too, and they are often discontinued by the manufacturer more rapidly than lesser models with higher volumes because of the subsequently reduced reward for stocking the parts. People who could afford to pay higher prices fo

            • You say that as though there weren't plenty of middle-age mid-range cars getting stolen on a regular basis.

              A thief isn't going to care how much of the original value has been lost, only about how much remains.

        • It can be true that those are the most common, and still also true that older cars with only a small number of different key patterns can also be stolen quite often by people who properly locked their car.

          "Top 2" isn't enough to tell you what is going on. Additional questions you should ask are: Is #1 only 5% higher than number 2? Is number 2 4% higher than #4? Does 3-10 add up to a lot more than 1 and 2?

          It can easily be inferred that 3-10 add up to a lot, because #2 is a regional problem, and other regions

      • Re:Better ways to prevent car theft/recovery (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @08:38AM (#61944343)

        Depends on the car. The low-tech kind of car theft has been steadily declining here: thieves would grab a car that's easy to hotwire and easy to flog in Africa or Eastern Europe. It's all high-tech now: high-end fast cars that are stolen on demand, or stolen to use as a getaway vehicle. These crews do key cloning, RFID relaying, they know how to bypass common car alarms. A very common method of theft is to simply break into your home to get the car keys. The point is: GPS / 4G jammers are very much part of their toolkit, and rarely do any good.

        Someone's seen Gone in 60 Seconds one too many times. In California, the top stolen vehicle is still a Honda Civic, and has been for the past three years. Sure, a 2000 Civic isn't quite as titillating as a Mercedes-Benz S65, but let's be realistic here, shall we? We're talking about street-crime thugs. not fucking Hackerman.

        https://www.chp.ca.gov/FieldSu... [ca.gov]

        https://www.ocatt.org/topten.h... [ocatt.org]

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]

        • In California, the top stolen vehicle is still a Honda Civic, and has been for the past three years.

          What is the rate per 100,000 vehicles by make? If Honda Civic is the most purchased make by a huge margin, then it doesn't tell us much. Converting to a rate per 100,000 per each make would allow comparison and tell us the vehicle that thieves actually target.

          • The point was to counter GP's assertion that auto theft is "all high tech now" with jammer, RFID shit, and hackerman spy movie theatrics rather than thugs popping ignitions for the most part.

          • Converting to a rate per 100,000 per each make would allow comparison and tell us the vehicle that thieves actually target.

            Slightly old figures, but Dodge Charger is number one according to NHTSA, with 4.8 thefts for every 1,000 cars produced. (https://one.nhtsa.gov/apps/jsp/theft/theftRates.htm), HLDI (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) says number one stolen by percentage was the Ford F-250 (http://goelitemotors.com/dodge-charger-f-250-popular-with-car-theives/ )

            This is theft rate divided by production rate, so vehicles which last longer will be undercounted if you're counting cars on the road, but the data is more reli

            • That method drops the Honda Civic, but #3 is still Hyundai Accent, #4 Chevy Impala, #5 Chevy Aveo, #7 Infiniti FX35, #8 Kia Rio.

              So cheap cars easy to steal are still well-represented, along with moderately expensive cars that aren't expensive enough to have bodyguards.

          • In California, the top stolen vehicle is still a Honda Civic, and has been for the past three years.

            What is the rate per 100,000 vehicles by make? If Honda Civic is the most purchased make by a huge margin, then it doesn't tell us much. Converting to a rate per 100,000 per each make would allow comparison and tell us the vehicle that thieves actually target.

            It would be nice if people would shut up about per whatever. The Honda Civic is the most stolen vehicle in California. Period. It doesn't matter if it's one more than any of vehicle, it's the most stolen. Percentage is irrelevant. It's raw numbers.

            And since you couldn't be bothered, here you go [insurify.com]. See? Most stolen in California. They even did the math for you so you can stop your whining.

          • Sure, if the question is "which car can I buy to reduce the odds of it being stolen" then, yeah, knowing the theft to availability ratio would be useful.

            But "what thieves actually target" is, you know, what the comment you were responding to was directly addressing.

    • Re:Better ways to prevent car theft/recovery (Score:5, Funny)

      by evilquaker ( 35963 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @09:05AM (#61944375)
      Not that it helps this guy, but the best theft deterrent is a manual transmission. Kids these days don't know how to drive them.
      • Nice idea, but it limits you to a tiny number of cars in the US. Econoboxes and sports cars, mostly. Maybe a dozen models have a manual available. I’ve looked.

      • Not that it helps this guy, but the best theft deterrent is a manual transmission. Kids these days don't know how to drive them.

        Not just kids. My 2001 Civic EX and 2002 CR-V EX both have manual transmissions and only a few people at the dealership can drive them. :-) Many cars aren't even available with manual anymore -- I know it's difficult to get in recent Hondas and only in a few model trim lines.

        • Not that it helps this guy, but the best theft deterrent is a manual transmission. Kids these days don't know how to drive them.

          Not just kids. My 2001 Civic EX and 2002 CR-V EX both have manual transmissions and only a few people at the dealership can drive them. :-) Many cars aren't even available with manual anymore -- I know it's difficult to get in recent Hondas and only in a few model trim lines.

          I have a 2010 Hyundai Elantra which is manual. Apparently the 2021 N line has a six speed manual transmission [motorbiscuit.com] as standard, but you can get a dual-clutch seven speed as an option.

          I have no complaints about the car other than the harassment bells. It's as close to my previous Honda Civic in driving performance and shifting as I could get, and is better in most ways. On those (extremely rare) occasions someone is in the passenger seat, it's funny to see their expressions when they realize it's a stick shift.

      • There is no problem stealing a car in first gear, and they'll do more damage before they dump it.

    • Isn't that called "LoJack"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      There is a company called LoJack that does this. It is expensive, a yearly fee, to check for security. Also the shape and possible locations are well known so can be deactivated or removed by any minimally competent thief.

      Mercedes and other brands have built in tracking. Again, a yearly fee to activate. Again maybe easy to remove.

      The nice thing about the tags is they rely on the network of phones for the heavy lifting so they are small. Can be put anywhere. Multiple devices for a price of the LoJack.

    • Yea, I don't get how it could be nicked three times.

      When I was a kid I had a Chevy Caprice Classic. My uncle wired it with a hidden kill switch, which didn't take him very long to do. Nobody ever tried to steal it, but with or without the key, there was no way to start it from the inside without flipping the kill switch. If you didn't know where the switch was you'd have to pop the hood to figure out where he rearranged things.

      • I don't get ... nicked ....

        You have lower car theft in your country, so of course you don't get anything about it.

    • Why would somebody use an Airtag to track their car when LoJack is far more effective and has been around much longer and is a proven technology?

        Oh well, if somebody wants to be h1p and use an airtag, they can enjoy that bicycle ride to work every morning.

    • Bluetooth tracker. Bluetooth has a short range, so what, they ride around with a cellphone looking for the car until it gets a signal?

    • Yeah, smart people would invest a couple grand to protect their 1999 Civic.

  • Who's stalking whom? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @07:51AM (#61944255)

    What's particularly obscene with the AirTag is that it turns all Apple devices owned by private customers into surveillance devices snitching for Apple to make this dystopian product a reality, and Apple gets a complete view of who's looking for what where around the world - and for free too, since they essentially bum a ride on people's internet plan which they don't pay a dime for.

    If you think this is okay, you're not right in your head. If you aren't don't buy Apple products - which I suppose is one way of rendering that awful product useless, if enough people do it.

    • Re: Who's stalking whom? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TuballoyThunder ( 534063 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @07:56AM (#61944257)
      AirTags are the tracking problem? If you are worried about tracking, you need to get rid of all smartphones.

      • Re: Who's stalking whom? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @08:10AM (#61944291)

        Smartphones are hateful surveillance devices, but at least the surveillance stops at the cellphone. Airtags extend the surveillance 300 feet around *anybody's* Apple smartphone.

        Cellphones are heinous, Airtags even more so. And to add insult to injury, Apple gets to extend their surveillance network entirely on the back of their customers. It's unacceptable, yet it's apperently accepted, is my point.

      • Re: Who's stalking whom? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @08:59AM (#61944373) Homepage Journal

        There is a very big difference between the phone company having that data and any rando being able to track you with a cheap AirTag.

        Your abusive ex can't get the phone company data very easily, but they can certainly hide an AirTag in your bag or on your car somewhere.

        If you want privacy from the phone company, you leave your phone at home. If you want privacy from the creepy stalker, well you have no idea where they hid the tag or if there is even a tag there. You could use a few different apps to try to detect the various different tags out there, but most of them won't let you see other people's tags (for their privacy!) unless they notice that they have been following you for a long time.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Interesting this was modded down. Some Apple fanboys in the house? Is any of it factually wrong?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bert64 ( 520050 )

          Why do you need an airtag?
          A cellphone does the same job, a radio modem, gps and battery - you could make the necessary guts quite small and then it would work anywhere that it has a cell signal.

          • I think probably the biggest difference is an airtag is tiny, and the battery lasts about a year. Cellphones are bigger and unless you have a way to plug it in somewhere else, battery is not going to last a year. Small and long battery life is the way to stalk.

            • Cellphones are bigger and unless you have a way to plug it in somewhere else, battery is not going to last a year.

              You're lucky if the charge on a cell phone lasts more than two days.*

              * Mine excluded because it's a flip phone which lasts just over a week if never used before needing recharged.

          • Re: Who's stalking whom? (Score:4, Insightful)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @10:21AM (#61944487) Homepage Journal

            You could build your own tracker with limited battery life, or you could get a cheap AirTag with 1 year battery life and small size to make it easy to conceal.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by flink ( 18449 )

              Air tags attain a long battery life by having low temporal resolution. They only wake up and look for a phone to ping every few minutes. There no reason you could not couple an Arduino, a GPS module, and a cellular modem to do the same thing and without needing an iPhone to be nearby.

              That's not to say air tag and tiles aren't a problem though as they lower the barrier to doing this type of tracking way down.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                Do you have any idea what the power consumption of a cellular modern is like?

                It takes time to sign on to the network before it can even send data. There will be high power peaks, 2A easily, so the kind of little battery an AirTag uses isn't going to work. Those things can provide tens of milliamps.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sjames ( 1099 )

            So just include a cellphone and a note to thieves asking them to please charge the phone periodically so you can track them down?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Ksevio ( 865461 )

            Airtags/Tile are also cheaper, don't require a subscription service, and to an extent work where there isn't cell service (though you'd have to get within range of it)

        • Mod parent up.

          Corporations are lawful neutral. They don't give a crap about good and evil.
          They do whatever they can to make money, limited by whatever laws and regulations are enforced to limit their antics. Corporations can be pretty powerful so whatever they do has a big impact. They can do some pretty shitty things to make money, but corporations don't frequently hunt down individuals or groups of people just to injure them.
          For the most part the corporate range of motives along the "good" to "evil" ax

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by johnnys ( 592333 )

          "...Your abusive ex can't get the phone company data very easily,..." Considering SIM swapping has been and remains extremely effective, I don't think this is the case.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            How does swapping the SIM get you timely location data? I'm the UK you can't look up your cell/location history on any of the providers AFAIK, maybe it's different where you are.

        • t they can certainly hide an AirTag in your bag or on your car somewhere.

          A) The AirTag starts making noises if it's separated very far from the iPhone tracking it.

          B) If an iPhone is around an AirTag for an extended period of time that it is not paired with, it will bring up an alert on the iPhone that it is in close proximity to a tracker.

          It's really not a great device at all for stalking. It's not too bad for recovering lost items because while it has the limitations, it may just make a thief abandon the

        • Creepy stalkers have used low tech and very effective means of tracking their victims scince forever.

          If you got a creepy stalker on your trail, the big bad phone company is the least of your worries.

        • Interesting. Every night and every morning I undress completely and have a shower. So how does a stalker put one of these tags on me, every day?

      • You need to get rid of your car too... all modern cars are connected 24/7 and have GPS.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drnb ( 2434720 )

          You need to get rid of your car too... all modern cars are connected 24/7 and have GPS.

          Which better thieves know to remove or disable.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

      What's particularly obscene with the AirTag is that it turns all Apple devices owned by private customers into surveillance devices snitching for Apple to make this dystopian product a reality, and Apple gets a complete view of who's looking for what where around the world - and for free too, since they essentially bum a ride on people's internet plan which they don't pay a dime for.

      If you think this is okay, you're not right in your head. If you aren't don't buy Apple products - which I suppose is one way of rendering that awful product useless, if enough people do it.

      The whole nature of the cellular phone system is localization, right there, in the tower logs.

      You can be found.

      Highly recommended for people worried that teh guvmintz or Apple or Google or AT&T or Verizon are violating them but want to use a smartphone anyhow is to carry a little metal box, keep your smartphone turned off and stored in it. Then once a day in a random area and time (never the same place twice) pull it out, turn it on, and collect your messages.

      Speaking of metal, here are the late

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's different when the cell company or government knows where you are, and when your stalker ex knows where you are.

        The main complaint about these tags is that there is no easy, reliable way to detect them for most people. Some manufacturers provide an app, but you need all of them to be even half way protected.

      • The metal box will only reduce the signal a bar or so (maybe 12-20dbm) unless it’s very carefully constructed with conductive foam or something to close the minuscule gaps and it’s tested to make sure it’s working. Otherwise the radio signals cause inductive currents in the box and the lid and adjacent areas are at different potentials because they aren’t truly electrically connected and become an antenna themselves. It’s a real pain in the ass if your testing RF circuits and

    • Apple Derangement Syndrome?

      1. You can turn off participation in the "Find My" network.

      2. AirTags started making a noise if they're separated from owner devices after a certain amount of time.

      3. Likewise, if an AirTag is separated from an owner device AND in close proximity to another iOS device, it will pop up a notification.

      Other than the AirTags themselves, how exactly do you think Apple is monetizing trackers?

    • ... from members of the Professional Thieves Association going on here. How about you just don't steal stuff and let the buyers of these tags worry about who's tracking them.

      We brand cattle and horses. We used to catch horse thieves and hang them on the spot. I don't remember too many of them complaining about how ranchers shouldn't brand their property because they'd put their privacy at risk. What with the demobilization of our city police force (no more property crime enforcement), I expect to see this

    • I really wonder whatâ(TM)s going on in your brain. Itâ(TM)s well known how the technology works, but in the end Apple sells you a tiny device where you can find itâ(TM)s location, and nobody else can, and nobody except you cares how it is working.

    • What's particularly obscene with the AirTag is that it turns all Apple devices owned by private customers into surveillance devices snitching for Apple to make this dystopian product a reality

      Cause maybe the irony of your statement hasnt hit your ape brain yet...

  • I designed and sell an AirTag case specifically for this purpose. It screws together, totally sealing the AirTag inside, and presents a very plain, generic looking device typically seen in most vehicles. Designed to be zip-tied semi-permanently (AirTag batteries need to be changed annual) in hard-to-reach concealed places.

    I do a type of offroad dirtbike racing, so I have these in my bikes, generator, kids' mountain bikes, etc.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/33408... [ebay.com]

    • I designed and sell an AirTag case specifically for this purpose. It screws together, totally sealing the AirTag inside, and presents a very plain, generic looking device typically seen in most vehicles. Designed to be zip-tied semi-permanently (AirTag batteries need to be changed annual) in hard-to-reach concealed places.

      I do a type of offroad dirtbike racing, so I have these in my bikes, generator, kids' mountain bikes, etc.

      https://www.ebay.com/itm/33408... [ebay.com]

      But..But..BUT! Someone might be able to tell where those things are! You're violating those things freedom!

  • ...that owning a 1999 Honda Civic would be the best way to prevent theft.

    Three times? Seriously?

    • ...that owning a 1999 Honda Civic would be the best way to prevent theft. Three times? Seriously?

      Certain vehicles are really popular in third world countries. Another sleeper hit is the old Toyota pickup truck 80's vintage with a really robust 4 cylinder engine.

      But the things are stolen, driven into a shipping container, and offloaded in a foreign port, and driven to their new destination. Don't have to worry about US law enforcement or titles.

      It's safer than chop shops because the vehicles are gone and out of the country quickly.

      • Another sleeper hit is the old Toyota pickup truck 80's vintage with a really robust 4 cylinder engine.

        I used to drive one of these. I could get it going about 60mph if I was rolling down a hill. It is terribly hard to believe this is desired - but on the other hand, it's not going to be significantly missed! It's not like they have to keep it if they steal it.

        • ... old Toyota pickup truck 80's vintage ...

          ... I could get it going about 60mph if I was rolling down a hill. It is terribly hard to believe this is desired ...

          They are not desired for their speed. They are versatile with respect to terrain and with respect to operability they are reliable and maintainable with modest tools and knowledge due to the lack of modern digital technology which started creeping into vehicles in the 90s.

          For fun, look up the Top Gear episode where they try to kill one, repeatedly. And a mechanic with hand tools gets it running again each time.

      • But the things are stolen, driven into a shipping container, and offloaded in a foreign port, and driven to their new destination.

        Another problem due to the trade deficit, all those "empty" containers that have to be sent overseas. :-)

    • There are different reasons for stealing cars - the flashiest one is for profit, where the stolen car is resold as parts or thrown in a container and shipped elsewhere in the world.

      However, sometimes cars are stolen because someone wants a vehicle. Usually to commit a crime with something that is disposable to the thief and untraceable to them.

      For this second group, the more common the vehicle is, the more attractive it is.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        However, sometimes cars are stolen because someone wants a vehicle. Usually to commit a crime

        The kids in my neighborhood loved Hondas. Easy to steal evidently. They'd borrow mom and dad's BMW and drive to the Tacoma Hilltop neighborhood. A popular place to make drug purchases. But if they drove back home in the Beemer and got caught, the car would be forfeited having been used in a crime. So they'd swipe a cheap car in the neighborhood and have one person drive the goods back (usually underaged who wouldn't have to serve jail time). And then they'd dump them a few blocks from home.

        The local police

    • Honda Civics (up until recently) were the most stolen cars:

      https://www.knoe.com/content/n... [knoe.com]

      (from 2019)

  • Please don't make stuff up (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheNameOfNick ( 7286618 ) on Sunday October 31, 2021 @08:55AM (#61944365)

    An AirTag uses Bluetooth to send out a ping with its encrypted location to the closest Apple devices

    How would an AirTag with a very small battery that's supposed to last a long time know where it is? It doesn't. The system just knows the location of the device which receives the beacon, and because Bluetooth has low range, that must also be the approximate location of the tag.

  • Calling them "perfect for stalking" is pretty inaccurate. iPhone users receive an alert if an unknown Airtag is following them without the owner present, and IIRC the tag itself will actually make an audible ping.

    • That ping sound might tip off would-be car thieves. If you intend to hide an airtag in your car so you can recover the vehicle after a theft, there are a couple things you should do first.

      - Crack open the case, and solder in a slide switch between the circuit board and the speaker. You might need the audio of the tag to work for initial pairing, but you don't want to alert thieves to the presence of the tag.
      - Wire in a more robust battery than a simple coin cell. This might require a voltage regulator, an

      • the LAST thing you want to do is try to remember to change the battery every year!

        Yeah I feel the pain of this one. Shame there aren't any devices we could use to set a reminder.

      • - Crack open the case, and solder in a slide switch between the circuit board and the speaker. You might need the audio of the tag to work for initial pairing, but you don't want to alert thieves to the presence of the tag.
        - Wire in a more robust battery than a simple coin cell. This might require a voltage regulator, and maybe a supercap or li-Ion battery backup, but wire that into the car's always-on circuit.

        And I would include this:

        - Add a motion-sensitive switch that opens while the car is moving in ord

  • There's nothing a cop hates more than a civilian wanting him to work and also work NOW.

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