Previously, in the spring of 2021, Apple launched the Bluetooth tracking device AirTag. The appearance of this "anti-loss artifact" has indeed made many friends who often lose their worries to a certain extent, but it has also caused many unexpected problems, the most typical of which is that it is used to track others. To this end, last year Apple partnered with Google to launch a draft of the Find My Device Network, hoping to further regulate the use of Bluetooth trackers.
A few days ago, Apple and Google announced the launch of the "Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers" industry standard, which Apple will introduce in iOS 17.5 and Google will bring to devices above Android 6. It is reported that this standard will alert iOS and Android users to whether they are being tracked by someone else using a Bluetooth tracking device.
If an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is found to be moving with the user, the user's smartphone will receive a "Found Moving With You" alert regardless of the device. It is worth mentioning that this standard not only supports Apple and Google trackers, but also Bluetooth tracker manufacturers such as Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebbblebee have also promised to be compatible with them in the future. It seems that the Bluetooth tracker, which was originally designed to locate objects, is finally going to be corrected by Apple and Google after being artificially distorted.
When the AirTag was first launched, many people were worried that if there was no iPhone, once they were glued to the AirTag, it would be equivalent to their whereabouts being exposed to others. According to the official press release at the time, if someone intends to use an AirTag to track a user and they are using an iPhone, the iPhone will automatically detect the unfamiliar AirTag and notify the user in time. In addition, even if the user around does not have an iOS device, the AirTag that has been separated from the owner for a long time will make a sound when moving to attract the attention of others.
However, after the actual measurement of overseas media, the effect of AirTag on anti-tracking is not satisfactory, the user will only display a security prompt on the iPhone after being tracked for 2 hours, and the alarm will only sound after the AirTag is separated from the bound device for 3 days, and the weak alarm will only last for 15 seconds. Although Apple upgraded the anti-tracking function of AirTag in iOS 15.4, and gradually added support for accurate search for unknown AirTags, a reminder will pop up whenever there is a sound, and a louder AirTag sound broadcast, but the barrier between iOS and Android systems objectively condones the Bluetooth tracker to be applied to tracking.
For Apple and Google, the purpose of their launch of Bluetooth trackers such as AirTag is to establish a "crowdsourcing network" based on a large number of iOS/Android devices through a gadget that helps locate the lost. The so-called "crowdsourcing network" refers to using the Bluetooth function of the device to scan the surrounding devices, and then estimate the relative distance by the signal strength of the scan. As a positioning technology, the only flaw of the crowdsourcing network is that it needs to gather sand into a tower, after all, in comparison, GPS covers the world with only 24 satellites, and the Beidou satellite navigation system only needs 39 satellites.
On the other hand, in the Bluetooth-based crowdsourcing network, when there are not enough devices in the network, the estimated distance is inaccurate and the direction cannot be judged, but if the mobile phones of the relevant devices are all over the street and the whole building are scanning each other in this way, then by integrating the signal strength between the multiple devices and the devices that need to be tracked, as well as the location relationship between these devices themselves, very accurate positioning can be achieved. This is why Apple emphasized when promoting AirTag that every iPhone with Bluetooth turned on will become part of a signal network to search for lost items around the world.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the privacy concerns caused by Bluetooth trackers such as AirTag have become a hidden "mine" for the "Find My" and "Find My Device" networks that Apple and Google hope to build. In today's world, users around the world are increasingly concerned about personal privacy and security, AirTag, a device that can directly track the user, can easily provoke everyone's sensitive nerves. If Google and Apple don't connect Android and iOS to detect each other's Bluetooth trackers in each other's ecosystems, then the latter may become a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of manufacturers when the laws related to privacy protection are gradually improved.
In other words, if Apple or Google, or even other vendors, want to build a crowdsourcing network that spans the globe, then having an industry-wide cross-platform anti-tracking standard is a prerequisite. And three years after the AirTag was launched, Apple also began to make up for it.