Tile thinks $1 million fine will prevent abuse of its trackers

Tile takes a different approach than Apple to combat abuse with its trackers: enhanced Anti-Theft mode with identity verification and a heavy fine for proven abuse.

Tile is offering customers a new feature that will make it harder for thieves to find their trackers. But because it also makes things easier for stalkers, the company verifies identity with an official document and biometrics to enable the feature. And if someone is caught using a tracker for espionage, depending on the terms of service, they could face a fine of a million dollars.

Tile takes a different approach than Apple to combat abuse with its trackers.

The popularity of Bluetooth trackers skyrocketed after the launch of Apple AirTags, highlighting the main problem with this type of technology – between theft and harassment prevention. Therefore, several measures have been taken, such as emitting a sound when the tracker follows someone who is not its owner, which also makes life easier for thieves, since they can know that they are being tracked in this way, and therefore get rid of the accessory.. But if you remove these covers to make it easier to hide the tracker, it will be easier for stalkers to use them.

“The problem with all of this is that a good tracking device is also a good spy device,” Tile parent company Life360 CEO Chris Hulls said in a blog post. “It’s nearly impossible to set up well-balanced alerts to accurately meet these different needs. Similarly, it’s nearly impossible to give sufficiently distinguishable audio notifications or alerts in any environment – it’s often difficult to hear an AirTag ring in a quiet room, so it’s even worse in a bar or club with a potential stalker.”

Enhanced Anti-Theft mode with identity verification and a large fine in case of a proven violation

The Tile solution tries to strike the right balance. The Anti-Theft Mode feature will make devices invisible for scanning and protection, the company’s own feature that allows you to determine if there is a foreign tile nearby. But in order to activate this new mode, the Tile owner will have to verify their identity with an official document, provide a biometric scan to avoid document forgery, agree to Tile sharing their information with authorities, and agree to receive a $1 million fine.. dollars if the court finds guilty of criminal activity using the Tile tracker. So while this technically makes it easier to use a stalker, the risks are high enough to, at least in theory, discourage them.

Chris Hulls is convinced that this approach is better than Apple’s AirTags, which make a sound and notify iPhone owners that they are being followed by a tracker. Android users must download a third-party app to receive these alerts. “We ran our own internal tests (see results here) of how quickly AirTags alerts when someone is spying on another person, and the results were disappointing,” he said. The CEO also explains that the company’s research with the latest AirTag software shows that members who were followed received their first “AirTag is traveling with you”alert with a delay of one to 24 hours, and sometimes several days later.

Chris Hulls adds that Tile “will make public, to the extent possible by law, all cases of misuse of Tile devices with anti-theft enabled. Finally, I believe that these numbers will prove that our assumption is correct, and if we are wrong, we will change our strategy and publicly admit our mistake.”