Apple And Google Join Hands To Stop Stalkers Misusing Bluetooth Location Trackers Including AirTags

Tech giant Google and Apple are teaming up to stop stalkers from being successful at their malicious actions.

The companies claim stalkers are misusing location trackers that make use of Bluetooth technology such as Apple’s own AirTag.

Both firms set out a draft entailing standards and some of the best practices involved in the tech industry today. This would be dedicated to the Internet Engineering Task Force and would stop unwanted tracking from taking place through Bluetooth devices. The news was confirmed by leading iPhone maker Apple through a press release mentioned on Tuesday.

Such a specification that combines input from device producers and safety groups enables people to get notified while getting tracked via Bluetooth and without any form of consent.

At the moment, users of Apple were provided with alerts on their respective devices about unwanted tracking technology that may be located near them. But this alert is not applicable to Android platforms or any other label for trackers.

Trackers of Bluetooth are trying to make way for huge benefits for users. But at the same time, they’re also trying to make way for means entailing unwanting tracking, and to solve the issue, action on an industry level is required. This was confirmed today by Google’s VP for engineering of Android devices.

While Air Tags from Apple and other trackers using BlueTooth are designed to work around issues linked to missing things such as keys, devices, and wallets, they’re at the same time trying to make way for stalking people. Hence, it’s very possible for anyone to slip AirTags or other things for tracking into a bag without gaining consent and without the ability to track locations.

One of the main elements here is linked to reducing the number of misuse cases that continue to arise as we speak. It’s a situation arising on the OS level and that means it can detect trackers produced by different firms on a number of devices that people utilize on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, some Bluetooth device firms including the likes of Samsun, Eufy, Tile, and Chipolo mentioned how supportive they are of this initiative.

Both tech giants Apple as well as Google are trying to address some feedback regarding this matter after a period of comments ends. And they hope to release a plan that implements all standards.

Furthermore, Apple claims that it hopes its features would be up for grabs toward the end of the 2023 period. And that would be supported across future versions of Android and iOS.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World