If only journalists wanted to try to do their job instead of regurgitating Bloomberg’s trash rumors.

The standards you walk past are the standards you accept, and MR must accept that stalking is cool.

If you didn’t read the article, you’re a troll.

"We did not cover the launch of the Elevation Lab Silencer because we didn't want to publicize an accessory that does away with the AirTag 's anti-stalking feature"

So they knew it launched (from Elevation Lab announcing it) and decided not to run a story at that time to criticize it themselves... try again?

Running a story after the product is pulled and the outrage launches is a bad look for the entire tech press out there that let it slide.

I am not sure I follow the unique technological aspects of this solution. The last time I needed to silence a beeping contraption, I broke out the cordless drill and ran it through the offending PCB element. Air tags seem affordable enough to practice this operation a few times. Not sure what is actually protected here.

Anyone that knows how a speaker works also knows how to silence an AirTag, without instructions required. Anyone that wants to silence an AirTag can just find one of the hundreds of videos on youtube [1], and spend some minutes carrying out the act.

The removal of this product will stop exactly zero people from silencing an AirTag, besides those that are probably doing it for legitimate purposes. For example, I silenced the one in my car, because I was tired of it constantly beeping anytime someone with a iPhone drove with me (including my family).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to++silence...

AirTags are expensive at $30, which is about five hours of the legal take-home minimum wage of about $6/hour in the United States, after tax. The cheapest cordless drill you can find is about $20 and you run the risk of damaging the AirTag.

This device was $10 and meant to be foolproof. Instead of spending $20 + $30 for each "practice AirTag", you can spend $10 with certainty.

For those on the side of our economy with more access to resources, they might value their time enough that $10 is a trivial price to pay to silence multiple airtags more easily.

A tag like this is only as strong as its network, and Apple absolutely dominates that with Google a distant second and Samsung still pretending they have a chance in third. Tile isn't even in the competition.

Apple's network has the majority of iOS and iPadOS devices on the planet tracking for it.

Google's network has whatever subset of Android devices are running a new enough version of the OS and have opted in tracking for it.

Tile's network has whatever subset of both iOS and Android devices where the device owner either has/had or is close with someone who has/had a Tile device, installed the app, hasn't uninstalled it, and the app hasn't had its permissions revoked automatically due to lack of use.

It's just not comparable. Tiles are fine around the house or in densely populated areas where you can generally assume someone with the app is going to be nearby pretty regularly, but if you lose your keys on a hiking trail and someone else picks them up so they're not wherever your phone last saw them you're probably not getting any updated info any time soon.

Best solution is to buy a high quality bike lock or two, and don’t store it long term where people can’t see it.

Yes, duct tape exists, but a determined stalker has much better tools anyway. The point is rather the "amateur" stalker, the one who didn't leave the house planning to stalk someone but suddenly decides to attach their backpack tag to someone's car.

Still worth pointing out that the mere existence of the Air tag enabled a level of stalking that didn't exist before.

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.

They have also done videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwdhWM9d0Y where they show Find My as a tool for theft prevention, although in that case it's a Macbook not an Airtag.

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, 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.

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.

Here's a real world case I've run into a bunch of times. Parents send children to school with Airtags in their backpacks. (The children are young and don't themselves have phones.) Class goes on a field trip. Boom, tons of 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.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/10/silencing-airtags-enables...

The outrage feels misplaced. The way to stop evil people abusing your global track-anything network is to not have a global track-anything network. Apple PR must be on yellow alert right now feeling glad they’ve dodged a bullet.

Imagine if Meta did this instead. They could network their smart glasses and leverage their ubiquity to help people find lost pets — but strictly only lost pets, not people — but then Something Labs might ship a tool to make a person's face look pet-like enough to turn Find My Pet into Find My Ex.

Agreed.

> The way to stop evil people abusing your global track-anything network is to not have a global track-anything network.

Or, to have a global track-anything network, and recognize this is the wrong level to try and solve the abuse problem.

> Apple PR must be on yellow alert right now feeling glad they’ve dodged a bullet.

Nah, they knew about this from the start - that's why they nerfed the whole design to the point it barely has any use case; otherwise they'd be buried with complaints and horror stories and media criticism, and the device would've never reached the market.

We live in different worlds

iPhones notify you when someone else's AirTag is following you.

This exists btw, from Ring: https://ring.com/ca/en/search-party

Of course, this would also make it easier for someone to disable a speaker and track a person without their knowledge, making it more difficult for that person to find a stealthy AirTag.

I'm not surprised that someone didn't think this through. I am surprised at how many people this must have gotten by to make it into production. You'd think that with any AirTag related product, privacy would be more central to the planning.

It actually doesn't help as much for anti-theft, because a thief still might be smart enough at this point to check their phone for AirTag notifications. The audible tone may not even hit in a theft instance.

Was missing the “make it more difficult for a thief to find the AirTag and remove it” part.

Cheers!

AirTags are less useful for that use-case right now since the bike thief will get notified of the existence of the tracker on the bike once they transport it, and are hence prompted to find and remove the tag.

Can you please edit out swipes from your HN comments and stick to posting thoughtfully? This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

While I understand the reasoning this is just virtue signaling in a time where software is free.

Also, even if it were software, what is virtue signaling about this? If they offer some software at any point, they should continue to offer that software to new users in perpetuity?

In this case maybe actually yes; LLM might be able to create a model of this rather simple product for 3d printing.

...or didn't they care, like Apple, and just cashed in before the shitstorm?

lmao “In lieu of direct sales we will be recouping the cost of our hammer-as-a-stalking-accessory patent through litigation”

https://www.theverge.com/tech/1010718/elevation-labs-stops-s...

Provide the full context when you apologize, not whitewash what you did. Go on a ride on your more expensive than car bike, maybe that will help you reasses your product ideation.

> also disables an anti-stalking feature that audibly alerts people

It sounds like piercing the speaker is the thing that disables the audible alert and the intent was not to help stalkers.

2. Physically disabling the AirTag speaker is soooo easy. It took under 3 minutes to do it on the AirTag I hid on my motorcycle.

3. "An Apology" is more like a weird advertisement (I guess it worked, I read the stupid thing. But, in fairness, I've now blocked their site in a custom ublock filter, so hopefully I never stumble on it again).

4. They have expensive bikes... Why? Who cares? That's not relevant to anything!? Why did they put that in there? Was this written by a 4th grader? Fuck me. I wish I had just read more AI slop instead.

Side note, AirTags are terrible for tracking someone, as noted everywhere else in this thread, they beep, they alert other phones, and you're giving control to Apple.

Here's one with no beeping or phone alerts for $18, cheaper than an AirTag:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CG2D8FZ5

It's absolutely true that there are many ways to stalk somebody, most of them much better than an AirTag. It's just that the people who decide it is a good idea to stalk somebody usually aren't the brightest, so making the lowest-effort way to stalk people a bit harder will likely stop many of them.

The goal isn't to hide that someone is tracking them after they stole my motorcycle.

The goal was to make it ungodly difficult to actually find the AirTag hidden on the motorcycle.

"Easy" is not subjective in this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAQNedIa0o

Pry and poke.

I think you missed my point on #4; it was sarcasm, which, to be fair, in our current world, sarcasm can't be discerned from truth, so that's my fault. To be clear, on #4: I do not want AI Slop. I do not want "apologies" as hidden advertisements. AI Slop would have been the lesser of two evils. Still evil.

To put a device into (or out of) law enforcement mode, can only be done over bluetooth (i.e. in proximity to device)./

Where people often get disappointed is when all the evidence they have is "my [object] is gone!" and they expect the PD to send out a full forensic team.

If police want to stalk me, use their damn device, ask their friend at 3-letter departments for cool toys.

What prevents anyone from selling a device but distributing the software through a separate channel?

The device helps you aim the nail and then, presumably, makes a watertight seal around your now-punctured AirTag.

This is stupid, they knew exactly what they were doing and now they pretend that it has never crossed their minds.

And I'm saying this as someone who has a muted AirTag for theft protection.

Doesn't the patent just document how it works so individuals can create and release 3D models of the device so anyone can create their own?

patent is already out, so that damage is done

it’s also a small damage, the issue is convenience and mass sale to consumers, it’s like disclosing meth recipes, if you want to figure it out it’s possible, but responsible companies try not to reproduce that massively

But if it is unlocked, I don't think apple will do anything for you with the device. If it comes in for service they won't confiscate it, I think they'll work on it.

It is all on you. You should lock it, enable find my and do remote erase/etc.

How is Apple supposed to distinguish an unlocked phone from an unlocked stolen phone?

I called them for this, they point some people to the wireless carrier.

note even if your device is locked, they won't do anything there either.

I'm just putting this information out there - their policy might not be what you expect, so it would be good to know it going in.

Any sufficiently advanced theft prevention device is indistinguishable from a stalking device.

You're still stalking the movements of the person who stole your bike, until they ditched it. The fact that the device can no longer stalk them if they threw it in a dumpster does not mean you aren't still tracking their movements from where they stole your bike to the dumpster.

In that moment when you see your cut bike locks on the ground where you parked your bike, and you pull out your phone to track it, your first instinct is that someone stole it and you want to follow their movements after they stole it.

No reasonable person would say trying to get your bike back by seeing it's location and going there is stalking. Stalking has an element of intent and a pattern of behavior which simply isn't present by a property owner attempting to go to the location of their property.

Perhaps you could stalk to get your bike back, but it would be something like "I think Bob stole my bike, I'm going to follow him around and see if I can catch him with my bike".

Perhaps you could stalk your bike thief by NOT retrieving your bike, but instead letting a thief keep your bike, and you continually track and harass them with your knowledge of where they probably are with your bike.

white knight with a sword made of patent lawsuits doesn't exist in my world.

It was good of them to decide to stay away from producing the product they realized they didn't want to exist, they should have stopped there instead of villainizing themselves by self-deputizing.

A better way requires a small programmable cpu with ble support - have a large number of virtual air tags which a device rotates, and also have a device which never sets the separated status byte.