Submitted 3 weeks ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.404media.co/tiktok-shop-sells-viral-gps-trackers-marketed-to-stalkers/
I can’t imagine how this could go poorly. /s
A friend of mine has a relative who is doing several years in prison for shit like this. It took about 14 times of him getting caught doing variously more aggressive, stalker things towards his ex partner before he was finally incarcerated for any length of time.
Motherfuckers need to start letting shit go, and we need to start holding people accountable and providing services for their mental illnesses in the states.
providing services for their mental illnesses in the states.
Statistics show that this would cost less money than engaging the unwell with police, but then how would we justify huge police budgets?
we could, I dunno, quantify which results in better outcomes over time: a jacked up roided police force responding to mental health problems by criminalizing the suffering, or, I guess, maybe… provide some mental health services?
seems fraught with potential.
Man, what a quandary. Guess we just continue incarcerating the mentally unwell and arming the facists. Sounds like there’s no better option. Glad that’s sorted.
why is tiktok even still a thing. didn't it get banned? can it pls die already?
Taco
Tik tok submitted to the US government (probably for a massive bribe) so it’s here to stay so long as people keep using it.
What? They haven’t changed anything since they were supposed to be banned.
Trump just keeps pushing back the deadline. Right now it’d be banned Sept 17th, but presumably he’ll push it back again.
It’s just too popular for the administration to take the flak for it disappearing while they’re in office
I have just realized that in of 2020 TikTok was about to get banned in US by Trump administration and he even signed an executive order for the ban. But since he lost elections later that year, ban was reversed by Biden administration.
THE FUCKING SAME EXACT THING HAPPENED IN REVERSE IN 2025 when Biden’s admin ordered it to be banned in january and it was unbanned (postponed ban) 3 times with the last one lasting until September.
I call extreme sus on this one. There are weird powers around tiktok that are/were important in info-war and elections in general.
They just wanted to control it, but tiktok called their bluff
This post is like a kid who grew up in country clubs and gated neighborhoods just finding out that people illegally sell drugs.
This kind of spy tech has been available and marketed the same way for decades. The only difference is that these are small.
Yeah, but they used to be fairly obvious. Mechanics would routinely pull them off of women’s cars and people would get arrested. I think it’s good they’re keeping this in the public eye.
TikTok shop also sells glock switches (to make them automatic pistols), galaxy gas/nitrous tanks and god knows what else.
This is why America is the best nation in the known universe.
You can buy nitrous ANYWHERE, so I wouldn’t blame TikTok for that.
There are ways to make any firearm fully automatic. Some are even legal. Why anyone wants to blow $50 in under 30s is beyond me though. Even military uses burst for a reason, your aim will be off 10 bullets in. Suppression is a different story, but less likely a situation for avg citizens (for now).
I can tell just from looking that they’re just btle not gps. Thankfully both Google and Apple tell you when a tag on their networks is traveling with you. So either these are trash because they’re not on the two largest networks that share data, or they’re useless because they are and if you have a smart phone it’ll warn you.
I’ve seen some pretty small GPS trackers with cell modems, I wouldn’t be surprised if these were that instead depending on the price.
Fortunately they hold the charge for realistically short time and therefore are limited in use.
It has way less to do with the size of the device and more to do with the size of the battery. Not much room left at all between the cell modem and GPS antenna required to make that thing work.
At the end of the article they say many of the listings have terrible reviews because the safety features in FindMy were triggered.
If any of these devices use the networks Google and Apple made, they are not gps.
I saw the same or a very similar ad on Facebook after a reel somebody sent me.
Ok, horrifiying implications of the main story aside, why are you on facebook at all???
I try not to be there anymore, but there are still vestiges . But there are some group stuff i am trying to get to migrate to other places. This was a link somebody sent me.
Now that I think about it that commercial might have been on snap between stories. Snap is also bloating up fast these days.
This isn’t new at all. Those devices have existed forever.
Luckily being sold on TikTok they will be so crappy that they won’t even be able to property track anyone.
The news is that they’re being promoted (very successfully) on TT, not that they exist.
Best way to detect that?
For airtags there’s airguard and similar apps, but more advanced locators? Maybe a SDR to analyse traffic?
There is no good solution. Daily life is littered with bluetooth, gps, and other devices, from watches to appliances to car stereos, many of which are not clearly named at all. You can Use a bluetooth scanner app like LightBlue to see what devices are around you as many of the trackers use bluetooth connections as well. Check for unfamiliar devices with strong signals if you park your car someplace away from others in a parking lot or something.
Latest Android versions will alert you if they find an unregistered tag consistently close to you. No app needed. I assume apple has the same at the system software level…
ccunning@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Are these compatible with ICE vehicles?
expatriado@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
or Elmo’s plane
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
God damn! How badly do you want to tickle Elmo???
potatopotato@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Use LoRa instead of sim cards so they can’t tell who bought it though
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
If one lives in an area with tons of LoRa enthusiasts, this might work exceptionally perfect.
dditty@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Yes and electric vehicles too
(ICE is also an acronym used to refer to internal combustion engines in automotive circles)
BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
(we gotta stop using acronyms for mundane things like this, it’s confusing)