1. You need to go compare the reach of how good Tile’s tracking is vs literally nearly every smartphone being opted-in transparently into tracking these tags. This is drastically different.
2. Tile is a smaller target, so “I’ve never seen a news story” just means the reach of any such story is smaller.
3. Maybe Tile already has similar protections? It’s against their TOS [1]
4. Tile has been sued for stalking [2]
5. Tile is offering an anti-theft feature provided you have to use biometrics & give them a government ID and you have to agree that they’ll sue you if you use it for stalking [3]. So Tile too is clearly concerned about the stalking problem, they’re already being sued around it, & they’re a drastically smaller target than Apple and Google (no one is going to craft legislation around what Tile is doing). Apple is 3x the size of Tile by itself.
You can disregard it as moral panic but how would you distinguish that from a genuine concern of the potential for an abuse for a technology? Strict liability isn’t popular these days but it has ebbed and flowed as a doctrine. Failure to try to try to do a good faith attempt to prevent this problem would certainly land Apple and Google into hot water when a case of stalking inevitably happens using these devices.
3. Tile doesn't (or at least didn't as of when I replaced my last one with an AirTag). I don't put much weight in the TOS bit; I'm sure it's against Apple's, too.
5. If Apple launched an AirTag Pro at twice the price with these controls but otherwise identical hardware, I'd be all over it. They're leaving money on the table.
So which is it? Is it unjustified moral panic with 0 evidence of harm & Tile isn't doing anything or are you just upset that these big companies aren't building the product you want to buy?
With 5 you're now shifting goal posts by introducing a non-sequiter to my point 5. I've clearly highlighted that Apple always balances money-making opportunities against their values around privacy & public safety. No one is forcing you to buy this product. You should also fully expect to see Tile utilize this standard so that they can leverage the reach of having every smartphone in the world scanning for these instead of just other Tile customers.
2. Tile is a smaller target, so “I’ve never seen a news story” just means the reach of any such story is smaller.
3. Maybe Tile already has similar protections? It’s against their TOS [1]
4. Tile has been sued for stalking [2]
5. Tile is offering an anti-theft feature provided you have to use biometrics & give them a government ID and you have to agree that they’ll sue you if you use it for stalking [3]. So Tile too is clearly concerned about the stalking problem, they’re already being sued around it, & they’re a drastically smaller target than Apple and Google (no one is going to craft legislation around what Tile is doing). Apple is 3x the size of Tile by itself.
You can disregard it as moral panic but how would you distinguish that from a genuine concern of the potential for an abuse for a technology? Strict liability isn’t popular these days but it has ebbed and flowed as a doctrine. Failure to try to try to do a good faith attempt to prevent this problem would certainly land Apple and Google into hot water when a case of stalking inevitably happens using these devices.
[1] https://support.thetileapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/44102774937...
[2] https://whlawoffices.com/blog/why-was-tile-sued-for-tracking...
[3] https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/16/tile-takes-extreme-steps-t...