This isn't new - AirTags have always been this way. The only thing changing today is the cross-platform and 'standard' aspect to it...
No. AirTags let you track your objects whether they are lost or stolen. It's just that they also alert potential thieves to their presence, so any reasonably competent thief will be able to disable them.
> Clearly, more people are using these things to track down stuff that has been taken rather than find the remote control lost somewhere in their living room.
My use cases are to (a) find items that I misplaced or lost somewhere on my own. (b) track the whereabouts of luggage that got lost by an airline.
These cases are not particularly hindered by anti-stalking mechanisms.
You are technically not allowed AirTags in luggage because they contain li-ion batteries.
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/hazmat/packsafe/reso...
The battery would be under the "In Equipment" column, not the "Spare" column.
When I recently pointed out to the lost luggage department at an airport that I knew for a fact that the luggage (or at least the tracker) was right at the airport, they did not appear to be surprised or concerned at all.
Clearly, adding “clearly” before a slight rephrasing of the unsupported assertion made upthread doesn't turn it into a supported claim.
So it is now on me to know whether my object is lost or stolen? Even if I magically knew all the details, that isn't a bright line rule. One person's "lost" luggage is another's stolen electronics. Clearly, more people are using these things to track down stuff that has been taken rather than find the remote control lost somewhere in their living room.
Will apple allow people to disable the tracking of other people's iPhones too in the name of privacy? What if my wife leaves her phone in my car? Can I get tracking disabled on that phone so she cannot track my location?