If you have an Android phone or tablet, Google will email you soon—if it hasn’t already—to let you know that your device will automatically transmit its location anonymously to compatible gadgets to nearby strangers. This is to help you find lost devices.
Apple has been doing this for several years with the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, and more devices. Here’s how its AirTags work — by pinging everyone’s nearby Apple devices to triangulate the location.
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Google lets you opt out of the company’s similar “Find My.” network. What do you have to do?
My advice: most people should say yes to Google’s location tracking network.
This will help you more easily find your Android phone, some Bluetooth headsets or other belongings when they are lost or stolen. You help other people do the same.
There is one exception. If you think there’s a risk that strangers or someone you know is stalking you, don’t let Google add your devices to this digital drug network. If you don’t say no, your Android devices will be added automatically.
Saying no isn’t ironclad, but it does reduce the chances of someone tracking your location when you don’t want it to.
(I have instructions at the bottom of this article for turning off this feature for Apple and Android phones.)
Persistent location tracking networks from Google and Apple highlight the trade-off of many technologies: features that are useful or harmless to most people can pose a danger to others.
One privacy expert said the risks of stalking Apple and Google’s location broadcast networks are so serious that the technologies should not be allowed.
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What are Apple and Google’s Find My networks?
For years, Apple and Google have had Find My apps and websites that help you locate your phone and wipe its contents remotely if it’s lost or stolen. They also work for some other devices.
These features typically use multiple signals to approximate your device’s location, including satellite GPS, nearby cell towers, and WiFi connections.
Apple — and Google, as of last month — have went a step further by adding bluetooth signals to the mix. Companies are bringing all these location technologies together in their Find My apps.
Unless you turn it off, most iPhones, and now Android devices, will safely transmit your location to any other compatible gadget within a few tens of feet.
This increases the chance of locating a lost or stolen phone, even if it’s disconnected from cellular service or WiFi. (Phone thieves can turn off Internet connections to avoid detection.)
Bluetooth location tracking also helps you locate lost items that don’t have an internet connection, such as wireless headphones or luggage with an AirTag inside.
Bluetooth signals from Apple and Google can be more accurate than GPS or cellular location tracking, but they are less effective in sparsely populated areas where there may not be many phones nearby. Unlike GPS, this Bluetooth location information can be updated slowly.
Do not completely trust the “Find My” services. The location information may be wrong.
And because Apple and Google’s Bluetooth location tracking tracks your relatively precise location, it can be abused.
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Additional risks for vulnerable people
People have found AirTags hidden in their cars being used to track their whereabouts without permission.
There are pop-up warnings on iPhone and Android phones if you’re being tracked by an AirTag you haven’t set up. Unknown AirTags are also supposed to beep. Some people have already found that these safety measures don’t always work.
Albert Fox Kahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said Google’s similar location-sharing technology increases the risks.
There are more than one billion Android devices in use, creating another massive location tracking network similar to Apple’s.
Kahn worries that people in abusive relationships could be forced to allow a partner to constantly track their movements through Android devices. He also imagines that someone could slip a wireless Android-compatible headset into a stranger’s purse as a de facto tracking device.
In a statement, Google said it consulted with privacy and domestic violence prevention experts to mitigate the risks of stalking its technology.
Unlike Apple’s Bluetooth network, Android devices that automatically broadcast your location to other devices only do so if you’re in a place like an airport or restaurant with multiple devices nearby.
The idea is that if you’re at home, your location isn’t automatically sent to other devices over Bluetooth.
Apple and Google are also working together to make sure that iPhone and Android phones will alert you to unwanted Bluetooth tracking devices, at least for compatible models like AirTags and Chipolo.
Kahn personally finds Bluetooth location tracking networks useful for pinpointing his own misplaced iPhones and AirPods. But he said Apple and Google’s technologies were so dangerous to some vulnerable people that they should be temporarily banned.
Location-tracking networks “can be a matter of life and death for those facing stalking and abuse,” Kahn said. “I wish convenience for some didn’t come at the expense of safety for so many others.”
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How to turn off these Find My networks:
On an iPhone, tap the Settings app and select your name at the top of the screen to open your Apple ID settings → Find My → Find My iPhone.
Here you can turn off the Find My iPhone setting, which allows your device to be located using GPS, cellular signals, and WiFi. If you want to be able to locate a lost phone or remotely wipe the contents of a stolen phone, leave this option on.
You can only turn off the “Find My Network” setting. This allows your device to constantly share its location privately via Bluetooth with unknown Apple devices nearby.
The downside is that in some cases you’ll get less accurate or no location information if you lose your iPhone.
With an Android phone, open Settings. (You usually swipe down twice from the top of the screen to find the gear icon. Or you can search for “Settings” in the Google search bar at the bottom of the screen.)
Then tap Security & privacy → Search devices → Find my device.
You may see an option to “Find your offline devices”. (I haven’t seen this option on my Android phone yet. Google said it’s rolling out this feature gradually.)
If you turn it off, your Android phone will not transmit its location to nearby compatible devices. The downside is that in some cases you’ll get less accurate or no location information if you lose your phone.
Google automatically sets this feature to transmit your Android device’s location to nearby gadgets only when you’re in a relatively busy place. You can turn it off completely or have devices transmit your location to other devices under any circumstances.
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