There is a much more sinister issue that Google is trying to resolve with this: it’s currently possible to stalk somebody by placing a tracker fob in their bag or on their car, so long as you know the victim’s device doesn’t support it.
Suppose some creeper with an iPhone is stalking a victim with an Android phone. So long as they use an Apple AirTag, the victim will never know they have a tracker trailing them wherever they go. And in reverse, the issue is the same.
Apple isn’t concerned about this, because they hold a monopoly in the market they care most about and can leverage this as an iPhone-only feature. After all, so long as you have an iPhone, you’ll be warned about an AirTag you don’t own following you. Apple wants to leverage this as an exclusive safety feature and have no intention of allowing other devices to do the same.
Apologies for providing this background as I know that this goes against the circle jerk of accusing Google of infringing our privacy. Feel free to disregard this context of it being beneficial to our collective privacy.
BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
I can’t wait to turn that shit off.
tal@lemmy.today 7 months ago
Google was already building a huge database with the locations of all the WiFi and Bluetooth devices at given times that they could. That’s how the high-resolution location services they use work.
Bluetooth and WiFi radios broadcast unique IDs. Google has any Android phones in the area tell them signal strengths and location, which is sufficient not just to locate the phone sending them the data, but also all those devices. And due to how those IDs are allocated, they can identify device types, data-mine that.
Google already knows what Bluetooth devices you have and can follow them as they move and knows where and when they were powered on. Bluetooth-enabled smart TVs, Bpuetooth-enabled earbuds, Bluetooth-enabled smart lightbulbs, Bluetooth-enabled keyboards, Bluetooth-enabled mice, Bluetooth-enabled game controllers, Bluetooth-enabled (or WiFi-enabled) cars. If you flipped on a Bluetooth-enabled vibrating butt in a hotel room that also happened to contain two Bluetooth-enabled smartphones anywhere in range of an Android device using Google Location Services – including potentially either of the two phones themselves – Google knows about the location and time of that incident and has logged it in their database.
This is just exposing some of that data that they already have to the device owners.
BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Still turning that shit off, and not buying corpo tracking devices.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
So you’re saying Bluetooth in general is a no-go if you care about privacy at all.
cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
Couldn’t you be tracked by other phones nearby?