Presumably "extended period of time" is several days, not several hours.

JohnBooty · on April 21, 2021

Probably needs to be more like minutes.

Think about a stalker dropping a tracker into the pocket/bag/etc of their victim.

They slip a tracker in their co-worker's bag at the end of the day. Coworker goes home. Attacker knows where they live now.

Or, maybe it's a stranger on the bus. Or in a club.

The victim is likely going to be home in less than a few hours. Perhaps less than an hour.

drdaeman · on April 20, 2021

That would defeat the purpose of this anti-tracking [counter]measure. One would be able to sneak a tag into someone's bag (or clothes, or car) and track their movement for the whole day. Then get back into tag's proximity to reset the timer.

gruez · on April 20, 2021

If your threat model is 1 day, it's pretty hard to use that for any sort of "find lost things" product. If I forgot my keychain at work, is it going to beep the entire night? What if I'm out sick the next day? Is it going to annoy all my coworkers for the entire day?

drdaeman · on April 20, 2021

> If I forgot my keychain at work, is it going to beep the entire night?

No, I don't think so.

As I understand it, the idea is that AirTags would only beep if they detect being moved (probably, accelerometer/motion based, as everything else is probably energy cost-prohibitive). So, no, a forgotten keychain left on a table shouldn't beep on its own, unless someone takes it and carries with themselves for some time. It shouldn't even beep if your coworker notices your keys and moves them to another room for safekeeping.

The idea is that it should eventually alert if you put a tag in someone's back pocket and you or they walk away.