Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...
The societal harm from allowing cheap silent tracking of people is greater than the benefit of recovering stolen bags.
No, I do not want the solution to this problem to be adding AirTags to the government panopticon.
Many, many people used them for stalking. I personally know somebody whose estranged husband did. I try to keep myself pretty ignorant of Apple products, and it was the first time I got a detailed explanation of how they worked.
Took them half a year and public pressure to develop something. 3 years for a joint standard (DULT) with google after google developed something by themselves.
There is always pressure required for those things...
Many dumb thieves out there, like the airport workers who steal luggage and take it home.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=airport...
In particular I'm guessing you can't use it to track your kid's backpack either; for that, you should instead buy your 7yo their own iPhone.
> Gotta go for a mini GPS tracker or something for protecting $$$$(+) bikes
The same one actual stalkers would use?
Right, like “cut your dinner with a knife, the one actual murderers would use.”
They had to balance needs of us owners of things and needs of abused partners and the general public. Other trackers have been available long long before AirTags and haven’t gone away since Apple’s introduction.
As it stands, plenty are still very upset about the existence of AirTags. Especially given the ease of disabling the speaker and the lack of Android notifications at launch.
You can - there will be spurious phone notifications and audible notifications.
I'm not constantly notified that my keys are with me. But if you stuck an AirTag in my backpack, my phone would tell me.