Today, Apple and Google jointly revealed their collaboration to address the issue of unwanted tracking with dedicated location tracking devices such as Apple’s AirTag. It has been known to be used to track individuals without their knowledge, and it seems to have reached a point where companies finally felt the need to get involved in some way.
In this way a proposed industry specification is presented that will help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location trackers for unwanted tracking. This “first of its kind” specification would allow such devices as the AirTag to be compatible with “detection of unauthorized tracking and alerts across Android and iOS”.
Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee have all expressed support for this draft specification, which provides guidance and best practices for manufacturers, should they choose to build such capabilities into their products. This is a strong indication that at least part of the industry is actually willing to commit to doing something about the problem, which is good to see.
The draft specification created by Apple and Google will await review and comment over the next three months at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). After this period, the companies will jointly process the feedback they have received and release a production implementation of the Spam Tracking Alerts specification by the end of this year. This will then be supported in future versions of Android and iOS.
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