My impression from “work in progress” was that they’ll continue to be evaluated and evolve as time goes on.

Seemed like a decent faith attempt to try the things out.

I didn’t know, for instance, that without upgrading iOS they wouldn’t work, although of course that makes sense. Or about the three day beeping feature.

Or even that they only communicate with the network via other devices. Presumably the kids on the school bus didn’t have updated iPhones I guess.

The find my network has existed for some time (2019 if I recall correctly) and was originally introduced so that the network of iPhones could locate lost MacBooks. Airtags can be located by the find my network using devices running older ios versions.

It is only the Airtag specific features which require 14.5 (I.e privacy features, pairing, identifying found airtag). I

More importantly, it doesn't appear to actually do what the title says? Did the privacy features (AirTag popping notification on iOS device and making a sound after three days) actually work?

It did not because the author had not updated the user’s device (aka the babysitter) to iOS 14.5. Either the author doesn’t understand that 14.5 is required or they are being deliberately misleading for views.

It sounds like this was still the same day (did his kid not return home for three days), so even on 14.5 it wouldn't have triggered this.

So much for testing

IS iOS 14.5 required to get notified? I'm having trouble finding information on that.

I know iOS 14.5 is required to setup AirTags.

> The safeguards are a work in progress

I find it curious that I've never seen any such articles for Tile and co. It really feels like that by taking any steps to solve it at all, all Apple have actually achieved is to bring awareness to an issue which either already existed, or never existed?

Why are airtags being treated specially here?

Getting super-high levels of press attention is both a blessing and a curse for Apple.

A blessing because they get loads of hype and attention when they release a new laptop or cell phone - far more than Dell or HTC product releases do.

A curse because it's been possible to buy generic GPS tracker modules on ebay for years, and yet the moment Apple starts selling trackers they get far more attention than ebay sellers ever did. And stories about chinese factory worker suicides, right-to-repair and environmental damage from raw material mining all like to mention Apple by name.

Probably for the same reason why Apple added additional measures that Tile and co. didn't - Apple is placed on a higher pedestal and has a lot more attention focused on it.

Put bluntly, people don't care about Tile as much as they care about Apple (in both a positive and negative way).

Apple's surveillance network is a lot bigger.