Apple And Google Roll Out Joint Initiative To Alert Users About Suspicious Tracking Through Bluetooth
Tech giants Google and Apple seem to be on a mission to ensure user privacy and security remain top priorities in today’s tech world.
This is why both companies have just rolled out a new joint collaborative endeavor that generates alerts to iPhone and Android devices whenever suspicious tracking activities are taking place through unfamiliar Bluetooth sources.
The new feature called Detecting Unwanted Location is getting rolled out soon to Apple’s iOS 17.5. In the same way, you can expect it to arrive on Android 6.0+ soon too.
In this manner, users are going to attain an alert in the form of a warning that something was found moving with the device. And that’s whether or not that app is found to be linked to them or not.
This decision follows several different cases featuring trackers from Bluetooth such as AirTags from Apple that are utilized for things like stalking. At the same time last year, both companies revealed how they would be collaborating to head a new initiative on the industry level to give rise to means so that users remain more informed about tracking that they may not be interested in via Bluetooth sources.
When we saw tech giant Apple roll out Air Tags, it was amazing to witness how that got adopted at a swifter pace for location tracking of items found each day such as keys. But trackers do end up finding all bad actors that use them to ensure the monitoring of a certain person of interest.
When iPhone maker Apple realized this, they rolled out a new feature called Tracker Detect on Android in 2021. This was designed to assist individuals who do not own products from Apple. This way, it would highlight AirTags that are unexpected and found near them.
Meanwhile, the latest industry standard in this regard has to do with engaging with OS-level approaches that address the matter of Bluetooth trackers that no one needs.
So many such firms indulging in the launch of Bluetooth tags can be found today. This entails the likes of Eufy, Motorola, Chipolo, and even Pebblebee which are committed to future tags becoming compatible with the latest that the industry has to offer.
For now, both the Android and iPhone makers would be collaborating on this front with other entities like the Engineering Task Force online which is known for creating standards for such kinds of technology.
Image: Apple
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