Google: Poorer performance of 'Find My Device' compared to Apple AirTag is due to privacy protection

[Redaktion]

Apple AirTags can currently be tracked much more reliably than Google's 'Find my Device' tracker. The Android developer has now officially confirmed that this is not just a question of time, but is also due to Google's privacy concerns.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-Poorer-performance-of-Find-My-Device-compared-to-Apple-AirTag-is-due-to-privacy-protection.860288.0.html

[indy]

Concern about user privacy would be not enabling the network by default.

[Kenneth]

Apple traded privacy, transparency, & safety for money. Apple devices by default collected & used user location. People were tracked using Apple's enormous user based of devices. Old Apple devices had no way to track the tags. Android devices had an Apple app they had to manually check constantly to see if they were being tracked by an airtag. Google knew if they tried this,there would be an uproar. Apple is special and got a pass.

[Gallo123]

It's funny how every tech website got hoodwinked into thinking Apple was better for security and privacy based on zero evidence. They just assumed on nothing.

We literally had an article last month about how Apple tags can track anyone anywhere without cell towers or even being on the network because they log wifi signals.

[Pippin]

What's the point of Google introducing this network if it's not capable of doing what it's intended for (finding my device)? I get that these tags could be used as presence-detection devices and of course there should be protection for people worried about being stalked/surveilled, but for the rest of us... I want to be able to find my lost stuff, and I'm entirely happy to help others find theirs, too.

[idont understand]

I don't understand.

Let's say I bought a trackable device because I WANT it to be found.  Let's say someone, anyone, has an android device and happens to be near it and sends a report back to the network WITH ONLY THE TRACKABLE DEVICE'S ID AND LOCATION (*not* the id of the android device that found it, nor any identifying information about its owner), how on earth is there a privacy concern? Please explain.

[Noneya]

I won't be turning it on. I was taught how to keep up with my things. So it's useless for me.

[Dani_2077]

There is too much fear in people 😐. Sunny shares EVERYTHING on "social media" and then ... oh, I'm afraid of being tracked 😂. All these "Family link", "Friends link", "My social friends/status", "Family group", "Where is my family" and oder similar, are just such "trackings" 🤓.

[NikoB]

It's funny how every tech website got hoodwinked into thinking Apple was better for security and privacy based on zero evidence.

Everything is completely different - the owners of such sites are ordinary bribed scammers who take advantage of the stupidity and ignorance of 99% of the world's population. Even among the remaining less than 1% of IT workers, more than 70% are essentially idiots in terms of a real understanding of security risks.

Security is ensured in only one way - absolute transparency of hardware and software firmware and continuous re-audit of changes by many independent altruistic experts.

Which is essentially an absolute utopia. That is why all distributions, even open source, are a profanation of idiots if a person cannot conduct a personal audit of the code or through an expert whom he really trusts (again, trust in someone is a utopia). With the modern closed model of developing everything and everyone, attempts to find a "safe device" are only possible if you are at the top of the social pyramid, that is, you have enormous resources, money, and power.

There has already been a lot of evidence of how the authorities, in violation of the constitutions, under fictitious pretexts, destroyed any companies that tried to actually make smartphones with unhackable cryptographic protection and a p2p network, i.e. when there is a potentially dangerous mass decision to escape their totalitarian control.

For intelligence agencies that actually own government vehicles in all countries, such secure solutions are like a red rag for a bull.

[svssv]

Apple traded privacy, transparency, & safety for money. Apple devices by default collected & used user location. People were tracked using Apple's enormous user based of devices. Old Apple devices had no way to track the tags. Android devices had an Apple app they had to manually check constantly to see if they were being tracked by an airtag. Google knew if they tried this,there would be an uproar. Apple is special and got a pass.

You don't even understand what you are talking about. A pile of facts combined together in the most degraded of ways.