Anti-theft or anti-stalking: pick one
Tile
Tile’s new anti-theft mode shows how hard anti-stalking trackers can be.
Tile has added anundetectable anti-theft modeto its tracking tiles.
As we shall see, it’s almost impossible to have a tracker that is both anti-stalker and anti-theft.
Tile
This is why Tile hasn’t been able to create one.
There’s no technical aspect of the equipment that can stop it from being used for stalking."
Stealing vs Stalking
According to thepress release, Tile is going in hard on the theft-tracking angle.
Tile
This makes sense because its arch-rival, Apple’s AirTag, is not a theft-tracker at all.
In fact, it’s pretty terrible at that, thanks to AirTags' stringent anti-stalking features.
Apple’s AirTags are designed to help you find lost itemskeys, bags, wallets, etc.
Tile
Every AirTag is trackedanonymouslyvia the hundreds of millions of iOS devicesaround the world.
Your AirTag constantly emits little Bluetooth blips that can be picked up by a passing iPhone or iPad.
The passing iPhone takes this blip, adds location data, and sends the entire encrypted package to Apple.
This is what makes the AirTag hopeless as an anti-theft deviceit warns the thief that it’s there.
So, to make an anti-theft tracker, you have to disable all anti-stalking features.
Which makes such a gear an excellent stalking tool.
The answer to this, apparently, is to reduce those protections still further.
As you’re able to see, it’s a mess.
We will have to see if Tile’s gamble pays off.
