Aqualung812 t1_j9kl8gl wrote
For everyone shouting about it not being a pet tracker, fine. I’ve give a few other use cases:
I have one in my GoPro bag. My wife took the GoPro for a weekend, so she got notified.
I have one on my keychain, and let my daughter use the car. Same result.
Finally, I have one in my laptop bag, and left it in my wife’s car.
In all of these cases, I want the AirTag to be shared with my family. I want them to be able to track those items as well as me, because they might need to locate them when I’m not around.
Since we are all part of the same Apple family, we already share our phone, watch, and Mac locations. Why not AirTags?
bigsquirrel t1_j9mtr5r wrote
Your wife agrees to the bag but you want to track her everywhere. So once she adds that tag you hide it in her purse. For some relationships that could lead to terrible things.
It’s painfully simple to abuse. How much risk and exposure does apple take to prevent people from getting a notification every 24 hours? I’m sure they have meetings and discussions about it. There’s certainly nothing altruistic. If they feel like they’ll make enough money from adding a family feature to cover the risk of its predictable and inevitable abuse then they will. They’ll have their lawyers lined up for the first lawsuit when a jealous spouse murders their partner etc.
Aqualung812 t1_j9mua8s wrote
This isn’t about avoiding the notice, it’s about letting a family share an AirTag for mutually owned items. Remote controls, keys, cameras, luggage, etc.
Make it an opt-in invite. I can choose to share a tag with my family & they have to accept or they don’t get to see it but get notified if it moves with them.
These are trivial problems to solve.
bigsquirrel t1_j9mvlxl wrote
How does this approach avoid just the one situation I thought of? Apple likes $$$ a lot. The moment they think they can avoid litigation and regulation they’ll add more features to sell more things.
For now it’s probably safe to assume the lawyers, product managers and developers at the worlds largest and most successful tech company have considered all of these things, they’re learning nothing new from an article about a dudes dog or people in the Reddit comments.
GamingChairModel t1_j9mzg28 wrote
It works perfectly well as a pet tracker for people who live alone and don't share the pet. The problem here is that it doesn't implement sharing correctly, not that dogs are somehow special.
deege t1_j9kmj2p wrote
Because you could be using it to track an estranged family member. iOS should be giving you the option when it notifies you to ignore it for a while.
McCheetah t1_j9kvblx wrote
Why is an estranged family member part of my Apple Family then? They could remove themselves if they want to. Also, even without airtags, if they’re in the family, their devices can be tracked if they allow it. These are all options that can be disabled by the user. Ideally, if they’re part of the family, they can see all of the AirTags that are currently attached to the family.
Aqualung812 t1_j9kvnpj wrote
Why would this estranged family member still allow me to see their phone, watch, Mac, and AirPods locations, but not AirTag?
deege t1_j9kwbtg wrote
Depends on how fast and the circumstances of their departure.
Aqualung812 t1_j9kwmhv wrote
Either they’ve removed themselves from the family, which means all tracking would stop, or they’re still part of the family and tracking is enabled.
I don’t see why AirTags are treated differently, and I’m seriously trying to understand.
deege t1_j9kxg2x wrote
No, not all departures are organized or amicable.
AirTags can be placed on you without your knowledge. That’s why.
It’s a very simple solution. When it notifies you, tell it it’s ok, and it will stop notifying you.
Aqualung812 t1_j9ky4su wrote
You don’t seem to be getting what I’m saying.
Let’s say my daughter leaves suddenly and no longer wishes contact. She forgets to remove herself from my family. I’m still able to track her phone, watch, and laptop. What does the extra AirTag give me that I don’t already have in terms of tracking her without her permission?
In terms of notifying her, if she did as you said, she wouldn’t even be aware of the AirTag I had already placed on her because she silenced it long ago. It won’t even show up on her list.
However, if apple did as I’m suggesting, she would also be able to track the AirTag I placed on her, since she is still part of the family and has access to the AirTag instead of just notifications disabled. That seems like a better solution, no?
deege t1_j9l0nd8 wrote
She knows she has the other devices. She doesn’t know of the tag you slipped in.
I don’t believe the approval is permanent, but you’d have to check with Apple on that.
Aqualung812 t1_j9l0yhj wrote
So she remembers I can track her phone using family, but forgets to remove herself from the family or that AirTags exist?
panthereal t1_j9kv6ha wrote
So give you an option to let you choose which family members it should be shared to, and the ability to remove one should you need to.
An intern could do this easily enough.
deege t1_j9kwhgc wrote
It gives you the options to stop reporting, or stop bugging you about it. What more do you want?
panthereal t1_j9kzh5b wrote
A proactive solution instead of a reactive one. It should just be in your list of airtags if it's owned by an approved family member.
deege t1_j9l035q wrote
So I just slip in a tag on the family member I want to stalk, and go in approve it and say it’s ok before they are wiser?
panthereal t1_j9l1d7c wrote
Realistically if the family member has not already permanently shared their location with you, they will not add you to their approved AirTags user list.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments