
Apple’s new Find My app will find your devices even if they’re offline - mmohades
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/3/18647146/apple-find-my-app-tracker-friends-iphone-wwdc-2019
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algaeontoast
Wow this is totally cool, but also totally fucked.

Granted, anyone who's been unaware of the insane accuracy of inertial tracking
(prevalent since the iPhone 4) is in for a rude awakening. In short, inertial
tracking / positioning uses Apple's CoreMotion co-processor to figure out the
relative direction and speed a device is traveling. This makes it possible to
navigate for miles without cell service or GPS in maps (I've done this for
over 30miles in google maps, while keeping the car icon on the road) and also
works accurately enough to tell which floor or room of a building someone is
in.

It's also been found that the co-processor can remain on for up to two days
and stores info without needing the rest of the device to be on.

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quenstionsasked
Where were you going that you didn't have GPS coverage for 30 miles?

GPS coverage works even without Network/WiFi coverage. I find it very, very
unlikely inertial tracking using iPhone inertial sensors would be accurate up
to 30 miles.

Could you provide a source please on the fact that iPhones use inertial
navigation for predicting location (either public or private apis)

~~~
algaeontoast
Sauce:
[https://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/03/05/iphone-5s-m7-tracki...](https://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/03/05/iphone-5s-m7-tracking-
dead-battery/)

I was driving through rural Kentucky shortly after the 2017 eclipse.

~~~
mjlee
It doesn't really matter how rural the area is - GPS works pretty well outside
of the polar circles. AGPS does use data connection to accelerate first fix
time, but will be accurate after that without data.

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lotaezenwa
This is cool, useful, and makes business sense.

But Tile and its competitors could now (in some regards) be DOA.

If there were, say, a cadre of bureaucrats trying to build an Antitrust probe
into Apple [0], this is landing on their desk tomorrow morning.

[0][https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/3/18650861/apple-
department-...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/3/18650861/apple-department-
of-justice-antitrust-authority-facebook-google-amazon-ftc-investigations)

~~~
macintux
I bought a Tile but refused to use the tracking feature because it felt very
insecure.

Apple should not be penalized for offering something inherently more private
than the competition.

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lotaezenwa
What would you say are the reasons that Apple's implementation of this
protocol is more private?

In other words, I am ignorant to how Apple's implementation is more private or
feels more secure than Tile's.

~~~
macintux
Even Apple doesn't know what location was just reported. Only another of your
devices can decrypt the location data.

[https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-
bluet...](https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluetooth/)

~~~
lotaezenwa
This is pretty cool!

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divan
Is there any papers/details on how it actually works?

~~~
macintux
[https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-
bluet...](https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluetooth/)

