What does HackerNews think of AirGuard?
Protect yourself from being tracked 🌍 by AirTags 🏷 and Find My accessories 📍
https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
For example, AirGuard lets the user activate the alarm on any AirTag in range immediately without waiting any period of time. iOS and Tracker Detect only let the user do this if they determine that the AirTag is following the user, and Tracker Detect adds another 10 minute waiting period for no good reason.
https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
AirGuard is a FOSS project developed by the Technical University of Darmstadt.
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...
It'll scan for bluetooth trackers in the background (and airpods and iphones) and can give you a per-device history.
A much better alternative is the free and open source AirGuard app developed by the Technical University of Darmstadt. It automatically scans for AirTags, Tiles, and other Bluetooth tracking devices in the background. When AirGuard detects an AirTag, the user can immediately force the AirTag to emit a sound without having to wait.
- AirGuard: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
Tracker Detect's lack of automatic scanning is not due to anything about the Android platform, since AirGuard exists as a free and open source Android app that scans for AirTags, Tiles, and other potential Bluetooth tracking devices in the background without needing user interaction.
AirGuard: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
In addition to automatic scanning, AirGuard has maps showing where and when each tracking device was detected. AirGuard also allows Android users to (manually) make AirTags emit a sound through the app as soon as they are detected, while Tracker Detect forces the user to wait 10 minutes after AirTag detection.
Right, and Apple have provided everything that AOSP would need to implement this, someone even made their own version of the entire Find My client long ago (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack), so technically AOSP could even integrate using Find My, although I imagine Apples lawyers would have a field day with this if they did.
Identifying the AirTags has also been implemented as a background service by the same organisation as above (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard).
> I guess they could make the packaging more tamper resistant somehow, but again this is kind of shifting the goals a bit. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that every device will be physically resistant to modifications that would enhance illegal use. An iPhone with the speaker removed and screen cable cut to look dead would make a pretty good tracker too.
This. Plus, the noise AirTags make isn't the only way of finding them, you get the notifications, and soon (when the changes mentioned in the article are implemented) it'll be easier to find them using precision finding.
AirGuard is great. They optimized the app to the point that it doesn't even show up in my Android device's battery usage statistics anymore. It's a set and forget app that scans for AirTags in the background automatically, but also when you trigger a manual scan. It's free and open source.
Apple's Tracker Detect app for Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...) doesn't have automatic scanning, and requires the user to open the app and tap the button to manually scan for AirTags. It also forces the user to wait 10 minutes before they can make the AirTag emit a sound. I'm glad that the Technical University of Darmstadt made a better solution and released the source code, too.
It won't be long before they have tiny mics, too. And the little speakers they have, of course, can be disabled.
We on HN should really band together to do something about this. There is already https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard which is cool. What else could be done? I can think of some general directions:
1) Fill their network with noise somehow. If there are lots of tags, or tags pretending to be other tags, then information on which tag is where will be less valuable
2) Make something that forces existing tags to out themselves (should they have working speakers)
3) Jam their radio signals. Probably illegal in the U.S. under FCC rules, but perhaps there's a way to do it where you're not actually jamming, you're merely doing something else that causes them to not work.
4) Find some reliable way of identifying them via a wand, your phone, etc.
5) Apply political pressure to make this sort of thing illegal (especially for the authorities)
6) Make laws that say if you're using spectrum to build a mesh network, it has to be open to everyone
https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.seemoo.at_t...
https://f-droid.org/packages/de.seemoo.at_tracking_detection
It won't warn you of an AirTag someone attached to your car, unless you make it a habit to constantly press "scan" all day.
AirGuard (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard) can do this for you, at the cost of battery life for having something scan for Bluetooth signals in the background all day. It's silly and honestly kind of sad that Apple's app doesn't provide this functionality.
Perhaps Google should add this functionality to Play Services. They already have an API capable of running Bluetooth background scans constantly in the form of the COVID contact tracing API, so the technology is nearly there already.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.seemoo.at_t... F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.seemoo.at_tracking_detection... Source code: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
(Courtesy SylvieLorxu)
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.seemoo.at_t... F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.seemoo.at_tracking_detection... Source code: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard