We remember: The company Life360 has taken over the well-known tracker provider Tile. One of the ways Life360 makes its money is by selling customer location data to data vendors. Not without controversy, which is why people are now trying other ways. Life360 now has an anti-theft mode for the small Bluetooth trackers announced. 
Tile users can now enable an anti-theft mode for a tracker on the iPhone and Android apps. This mode is available for all Tile trackers in all form factors, including Tile partner products. When the mode is activated, the tracker becomes invisible for Scan and Secure and no warnings, such as the AirTag, are issued to nearby smartphones. This is intended to make it more difficult to locate the Tile tracker on stolen items. This is to increase the chances of recovering the stolen item. The manufacturer also dismisses acoustic warning signals from the competition as anti-stalking measures as “insufficient” anyway.
Activating the anti-theft mode, however, requires users to go through an ID verification process, including a biometric scan to detect fake IDs – however you can think of it. The mode is then activated for all of the user’s trackers. The tile tracker can then be assigned to a person (not anonymously) via identification using an ID card, which is intended to prevent misuse such as for stalking purposes. However, one must then also question whether the tracker is inevitably discovered in the above-mentioned measures – certainly not in many cases.
According to its own statements, Tile also protects itself through terms of use with the cooperation of the law enforcement authorities. However, I doubt that this is a model for the European market, although they do not announce any local restrictions either. More information can be found here at this point.
An exciting question, which can certainly also be discussed in the comments, is to what extent the protection against theft (tracker does not draw attention to itself) versus protection against misuse (tracker draws attention to itself and warns the thief or, in the event of misuse, this stalking victims) predominates.
The rollout process will continue for some users over the coming weeks. The function should then be available across the board.
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