Summary
- Android provides new safety features to combat tech-enabled stalking with enhanced unknown tracker alerts.
- Users can temporarily stop location updates to Find My Device network and locate nearby trackers.
- The features are part of Android, not Find My Device, allowing all Android users to benefit from increased safety.
As the prevalence of battery-powered location trackers like Apple’s AirTags and various options from Pebblebee has grown over the past few years, so has the risk of tech-assisted stalking. Android has offered features to detect unwanted trackers for some time, with notifications to let you know if someone else’s tracker has been near you for an extended period of time. Today, Google’s announcing a couple of additional features to help you deal with unwanted trackers.
In a blog post, Google’s outlined two new features specifically for Find My Device-compatible trackers. First up: if your Android phone detects that a FMD tracker that doesn’t belong to you has been nearby for some amount of time, you’ll be presented the option to temporarily stop your phone from providing location updates to the Find My Device network for up to 24 hours. Taking that action will immediately stop exposing your location to whoever owns the tag, giving you time to locate the tracker and deal with it.
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Next, unknown tracker alerts will also surface the option to locate the tracker if it’s nearby. Having tried the Bluetooth-based nearby tag location feature offered by trackers like the ones Pebblebee makes, I know that process isn’t especially precise — Bluetooth isn’t meant to support precise location tracking and can only broadly gauge location by signal strength. It could help you determine whether an unwanted tracker is in your car or in your backpack, but it won’t necessarily help you determine where specifically in your vehicle a tag is. You’ll also be able to access instructions for how to physically disable the tracker once you find it.
Part of Android, not Find My Device
While these new features are meant to combat abuse of Google’s Find My Device network, Google stresses the safety features themselves are native to Android and not part of the Find My Device network or app. You don’t need to have interacted with Find My Device in any capacity to take advantage of safety features like unknown tracker alerts.
Ideally you’ll never have to interact with these new features, but it’s still a good thing that they exist. Expect the new temporary location pause and find nearby functionality to reach your device soon.
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