Smart Tag anti stalking vs anti theft?

[Ph0enix]

I am concerned that anti stalking feature would make anti theft capabilities of SmartTag useless. As per description, it would allow to check whether some unknown SmartTags are travelling with you. Wouldn't it allow any thief to check if the thing they have stolen has any SmartTags and get rid of them?

[VerbumVeritum]

Any potential thief would also need to have setup a SmartTag and enabled this feature on their end. If it's hidden in a car, finding the tag might prove troublesome as well. Samsung's SmartTags are not meant to be a fool proof solution for tracking, but rather an assistive tool.

[Ph0enix]

Thank you, I just wanted to confirm this. Well, got to hope that thieves won't be so well prepared as to check for SmartTags (hoping that there will be no thieves at all in the first place of course).

But it is sad to know about this limitation. I hope it does not start beeping after a day of being out of range like AirTag does.

[DanG92263]

I think you would, if you were the one being stalked?

[Ph0enix]

I imagine that people have been using tracking devices for stalking for a long time. Some kinds of GPS markers. Not sure if stalking profession is going to get a significant boost because of tags.

[VerbumVeritum]

I think we've been hearing about it lately because these devices are fairly cheap, easy to obtain, and sensationalized in the news. Thankfully, new software updates can find ways to make the tags more intelligent, like having a feature (if you believe whatever you had the tag on was stolen) to not alert the phone closest to the tag for a short period of time with a long cooldown. This would balance out its potential for abuse by stalkers.

[reversespeed]

I personally use anti-theft

[Ph0enix]

Now you know that some tech savvy thieves will be able to avoid it thanks to anti stalking. Do you think it might be a problem?

[DanG92263]

Any reasonable thief is going to remove any valuables and ditch the rest as soon as possible.

My dad was a cop. They usually found the stolen purse and/or wallet, minus it's valuables, in the dumpster out back.

[Ph0enix]

Yeah, might work if it is hidden in a car though. Harder to disguise it somewhere among the documents. Would be nice if it fitted inside a laptop somehow.