This week, Google held an event called I/O. It wasn’t just about AI and Pixel products. The business also said that its Find My Device platform would be expanded so that users could find more kinds of lost devices. It will also use Android devices that belong to other people to ping lost things, and there will be unknown tracker alerts to let someone know if they are carrying an unknown tracker.
Sameer Samat from Google said that the company would add headphones, earbuds, computers, and more to the Find My Device service over the next few months. There is already support for some of these, but more will be added.
An interesting new update to Find My Device will use the network of more than a billion Android devices all over the world to “ping” lost devices and find out where they are.
Some users might be worried about this, but Samat said that the Android-device network has been set up to protect users’ privacy. He also said that Google can’t see encrypted info about where a device is.
Samat also talked about the common problem of tracking technologies being used for bad things, like stalking. When they come out later this summer, Google’s unknown tracker alerts will be able to tell when someone is travelling with a Bluetooth tracking device. They will work with a variety of tracker brands, such as Apple AirTags and Tile devices.
Apple and Google worked together earlier this month on a project to build a standard for tracking devices. The goal is to stop people from following people by making Bluetooth trackers work on all devices.
Tile’s Bluetooth trackers used to have an anti-stalking tool called “Scan and Secure.” This feature let Tile app users quickly scan for and find nearby Tiles and Tile-enabled devices that might be travelling with them. But thieves could use this feature to find out if the thing they stole had a hidden tag on it. To stop this from happening, Tile made an Anti-Theft Mode that hides Tile devices from Scan and Secure. It sounds like the perfect tool for stalkers, but Tile has said that anyone who uses its tracks in this way will be fined $1 million.
