Apple debuts Tracker Detect, an Android app that scans for AirTags and other Find My items that may be traveling with users without their knowledge

Apple's following through on a promise to help Android users identify nearby AirTags and Find My trackers that aren't with their owners.

CNET 2021-12-14 Ian Sherr

Context & Ripple Effects

Tracker Detect delivers the Android safety measure Apple outlined before AirTag's planned anti-tracking protections, following the launch of the $29 Find My item tracker. It extends a safety function beyond the platform where AirTags are managed, but as a separate scanning app rather than an automatic system.

First-order effects

Android users can manually check for AirTags and other Find My items traveling with them, while Apple fulfills its stated cross-platform detection commitment.
AirTag and Find My-item owners face a greater chance that an unintended or abusive tracker is discovered by people outside Apple's ecosystem.

Second-order effects

The separate-app approach sets a limited cross-platform baseline that Google later surpassed with proactive unknown-tracker alerts in its Find My Device network.
Google's subsequent pause of a Find My Device rollout pending iOS changes shows that tracker-network expansion becomes tied to Apple-compatible safety protections, not solely to locating lost items.

Third-order effects

If Android and iOS continue to make unknown-tracker detection a shared requirement, item-tracker networks will compete on both recovery reach and cross-platform anti-stalking safeguards.
The pattern points toward ecosystem cyber defense becoming a condition of interoperable Bluetooth tracking: network operators must account for devices detected outside their own apps and operating systems.

The trend: Bluetooth item tracking is evolving from a single-platform recovery feature into a cross-platform safety system, with automated unknown-tracker alerts becoming the competitive benchmark.

Discussion

@hackyscientress @hackyscientress on x
@evacide @deviantollam wow @Apple geo-locked the Find My anti stalking app and it's not available in Germany. WTF 🤬 But there is good news, there is an App from the TU Darmstadt with similar functionallity without stupid geo-locking: https://play.google.com/... https://twitter.co…
@sdw Sebastiaan de With on x
Apple launched an Android app today. Tracker Detect finds Find My-network enabled trackers near you (like AirTags). Interesting icon. I never managed to get my blue radar icon for the Find my iPhone app approved when I was at Apple 🥲 https://twitter.com/...
@evacide Eva on x
@an_aaron Easily
@imaguid Nobody on x
great, now apple just has to convince all android users to install apple's software to protect themselves against malicious uses of apple's hardware that they didn't even buy. i wonder what apple plans to do for people without smart phones https://twitter.com/...
@evacide Eva on x
@mattblaze I have not suggested that it is, but it a big improvement over what we had until now, which was nothing.
@sdw Sebastiaan de With on x
@benjitaylor I designed Windows UIs and icons for Outlook at Apple. Trying to make them look windows native. It was weird.
@benjitaylor Benji Taylor on x
@sdw being the one who has to work on this at apple must be a fever dream
@evacide Eva on x
@nonchip They do beep. It is easily muffled, easily circumvented by returning within range of the paired phone every 24 hours, and useless for warning the hearing impaired.
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@evacide Yes, this definitely helps people who know they have to worry about stalking, but that's not everyone who has to worry about stalking.
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@tobie ... So I think that puts Apple in a position of special responsibility here.
@evacide Eva on x
This was a really serious oversight that put people in danger and I'm glad Apple has fixed it. Now I have to go put it through its paces and see if it works correctly.
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@tobie ... In particular, AirTags heavily leverage the enormous scale of iPhone deployment. (It's what allows them to use only cheap, short range, low power Bluetooth beacons for communication.). Pretty much only Apple and Google/Android have the customer base to be able to do th…
@made_in_cosmos @made_in_cosmos on x
Husband put an AirTag on our dog's harness and left for a business trip, and it took me a few days to figure out that the weird noise I'm hearing at random times of the day is the Apple's anti-stalking tool. The dog seemed pretty confused with it too. https://twitter.com/...
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@tobie ... I think Apple is doing an admirably good job incorporating all the mitigations it can, but there are, as you note, some people for whom the existence of cheap trackers will represent a new risk that they can't easily defend against
@evacide Eva on x
@mattblaze People who are at risk of stalking tend to be pretty motivated to take action, but it will be a matter of getting the word out to the community that supports survivors of stalking and other abuse.
@tobie Tobie Langel on x
@evacide ... What about people who don't have phones at all. Children for instance.
@evacide Eva on x
@mattblaze @adambroach I will ask Apple and Google to cooperate to add physical device tracking in the background to Android. I ask for lots of things. Sometimes I get them. Let's see if it works.
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@evacide This is positive, but I wonder what the impact will be, given that you (presumably) have to install the app to get the warning. How many people will actually do that?
@mattblaze Matt Blaze on x
@tobie ... So this is not a case where if Apple doesn't do it, someone else will, but with less privacy protection. Apple is in an almost unique position here.
@nonchip @nonchip on x
@evacide that works for people who have a) a smartphone and b) their app. i still feel those tags should make obnoxious beeping sounds every so often if they've not been around their owner's iphone or stationary for X amount of time.
@an_aaron Aaron on x
@evacide Bandaid over a symptom, but better than not having it. I wonder if a malicious AirTag can be traced back to it's purchaser through Law Enforcement/Apple from it's serial number.
@bdsams Brad Sams on x
Now do iMessage https://twitter.com/...
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
What a bizarre, negative way of framing Apple's Find My network to Android users. It's for detecting unwanted or unknown ‘trackers’. That's not quite what you say to iPhone users 😅 https://twitter.com/...
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
This is great. https://twitter.com/...
@cnet @cnet on x
Apple launches AirTags and Find My detector app for Android, in effort to boost privacy https://www.cnet.com/...
@evacide Eva on x
When Apple launched the AirTag earlier this year, its anti-stalking mitigations included a warning if a strange AirTag was traveling with you, but there was no way to get the warning if you had an Android. Now there is. https://www.cnet.com/...
@iansherr Ian Sherr on x
NEW: Apple's AirTags and Find My network app is available on Google Play. No Apple acct needed. Detects Find My trackers nearby aren't w/ their person https://www.cnet.com/...

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