Week in Review - Apple's AirTag fiasco won't end anytime soon

Saturday, February 12, 2022 • By Lucas Matney

Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review!

Last week, we talked about Meta’s tough week and the tough prospect of their metaverse moonshot. This week, we’re looking at Apple’s plans to sidestep further embarrassment with the AirTag debacle.

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the big thing

We’ve already talked about how badly Apple has bungled the rollout of AirTags, a product which has made life more convenient for most but terrifying for some.

As I’ve mentioned in here before, there have been a number of public cases of AirTags being used by stalkers to track victims. This week, Apple showcased what exactly they’re doing to address the problem.

The company’s strategy which they announced in a press release is largely a forward-looking game plan for Apple as most of the proposed fixes are still in development. In an “upcoming software update,” Apple will add privacy warnings to the AirTag setup process saying that using the devices to track people without their consent is a crime and that law enforcement will be able to tie the device to the user’s account. In updates that won’t be coming until “later this year” Apple plans to release a feature called “Precision Finding” which will enable recipients of an unwanted tracking alert to find exactly where the AirTag is. Other features will fine tune the notifications and tracking alert logic or enable the AirTags onboard speaker to make the device more easily findable.

The fact that so many of these features won’t be ready for months showcases just how little thinking Apple put into the potential ramifications of selling tiny tracking devices to their network of consumers.

Apple has publicly insisted that rather than being blamed for these issues they should be praised for integrating user protections into a product category that previously didn’t include any of these safeguards. This argument sounds great only if you believe that the Find My network is essentially the same as what Tile and smaller competitors have shipped. I don’t buy that at all though, Apple’s operating scale is an order of magnitude beyond what Tile ever reached — with 1.8 billion active iOS devices out there building out a tracking network that makes Tile’s network look like a dinky toy in comparison.

Apple invented the category of persistent tracking devices with the AirTag and they brought a whole host of problems into the world with it, problems that they don’t seem to have anticipated and may still be months away from rectifying.

My colleague Sarah summed it all up pretty succinctly covering the debut of the news, “Following the AirTags’ spring 2021 introduction, numerous media reports and updates from local police departments have warned of incidents where AirTags were being used for unwanted tracking, including of people and valuable property — like cars thieves intended to steal. This resulted in a growing PR nightmare for Apple, which had positioned itself as a consumer privacy-focused company.”

Image Credits: James D. Morgan / Contributor / Getty Images

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other things

Here are a few stories this week I think you should take a closer look at:

The “Crypto Couple”
Usually a good tech scandal takes at least a few months to result in a TV deal, but the announcement this week that the DOJ had seized billions of dollars worth of bitcoin from a 30-somethings married couple accused of laundering the stolen crypto was too juicy to wait. Netflix is already eyeing the story and it’s easy to see why.

Inside Netflix’s spinning LED stage
Modern film and TV production is reaching new heights to bring viewers more realistic visuals that blend virtual and practical effects. My colleague Devin had the chance to chat with the production company behind one of Netflix’s most audacious upcoming projects which taps a spinning LED volume to bring viewers into a massive world without leaving the stage. He got the full rundown on what the system means for the series… and the future of TV.

How Texas is becoming a bitcoin mining hub
China’s global status as a hub for bitcoin mining seemed to dissipate overnight when the government enacted harsh restrictions on the energy intensive process there, but crypto companies are looking to make Texas a new hub for the activity. “Texas will be the bitcoin capital of the world in the next two years,” Poolin CEO Kevin Pan tells TechCrunch.

added things

Some of my favorite reads from our TechCrunch+ subscription service this week:

Peloton hits a correction
“…After hitting a 52-week peak of $155.52 per share, the company’s stock crashed 84% in value in just a few short months. It’s nothing short of incredible, given that it was once a darling of Wall Street and customers alike…”

Is the metaverse for work or for play?
“The widespread success of platforms ranging from Second Life to Roblox shows that people are open to virtual worlds where they can socialize, play games, exchange information, and share some laughs. More recently, the rise of virtual HQs, Meta’s investment in interactive social software, and a handful of acquisitions by Microsoft signal that the metaverse could play a role in the future of work as well…“

Why cybersecurity asset management startups are so hot right now
“…In the world of cybersecurity, you can’t secure something if you don’t know it’s there. Enter cybersecurity asset management, an admittedly unsexy fragment of the booming industry that investors have shown an ever-increasing appetite for over the past 18 months…”