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Show HN: Undetectag, track stolen items with AirTag

(undetectag.com)
114 points pompidoo | 4 comments | 15 May 25 15:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.822s | source

I developed a device that turns an Airtag on and off at specific intervals. Current Airtags are detectable right away and cannot be used to track stolen property. That device allows you to hide an Airtag in your car, for example, and someone that steals your car will not be able to use some app to detect it. The Airtag will also not warn the thief of its presence. After some hours, the Airtag turns on again and you can find out its location. It’s not foolproof, as the timing has to be right, but still useful.

What do you think?

1. Gibbon1 ◴[15 May 25 19:56 UTC] No.43998699[source]▶
A while ago saw someone who was working in the tracking space said the following.

For stolen items you don't want to track them. You want to be able to ask them where they are. The advantage is you can make a locator that doesn't reveal itself by transmitting. And it doesn't waste power receiving gps signals. You could literally have a device that runs for years on a AA battery.

The reason you don't see these on the market is because the people that fund products want to sell location data.

replies(2): >>43999174 #>>44000264 #
2. xmodem ◴[15 May 25 20:45 UTC] No.43999174[source]▶
> You want to be able to ask them where they are.

Through what presently-existing technology, exactly, is this idea supposed to work over distances greater than at best a couple of miles with say LoRA?

> The reason you don't see these on the market is because the people that fund products want to sell location data.

I'm not equipped to analyse their claims in detail, but Apple claims the design of their find-my network is end-to-end encrypted, and presumably it would be a huge scandal if this turned out to be a massive lie.

replies(1): >>44000977 #
3. Animats ◴[15 May 25 23:07 UTC] No.44000264[source]▶
That's how classic Lojack worked. Lojack is a car theft detection device. It's not GPS based. It's hidden somewhere on the vehicle and connected to power. It listens to FM broadcast radio stations until it finds one with the Lojack subcarrier, something Lojack licensed from radio stations in most cities. It decodes the subcarrier, listening for serial numbers of Lojack units that have been stolen. Then it starts transmitting. It doesn't transmit location, just its serial number. Police cars equipped with Lojack receivers get an indication of direction and distance. Lojack had an effort to equip police cars with the equipment. At peak, LoJack had coverage in parts of 29 states.

It was very effective. 98% recovery rate.

4. stavros ◴[16 May 25 01:20 UTC] No.44000977[source]▶
It is end-to-end encrypted, yes. The protocol has been widely reverse-engineered and Apple can't actually read your item's location at all. It's pretty clever.