Linked List: July 30, 2024

Tuesday, 30 July 2024

Tim Sweeney Declares Find My ‘Super Creepy Surveillance Tech and Shouldn’t Exist’ ★

Tim Sweeney on X, with what can only be described as a weird take on Find My:

This feature is super creepy surveillance tech and shouldn’t exist. Years ago, a kid stole a Mac laptop out of my car. Years later, I was checking out Find My and it showed a map with the house where the kid who stole my Mac lived. WTF Apple? How is that okay?!

Responding to arguments that Find My only allows people to track devices that they own, Sweeney dug deeper:

A lot of people are saying this here. While technically true, it misses the point: you can’t track the location of a device that’s in someone’s possession without tracking that person, and people have a right to privacy. This right applies to second hand device buyers and even to thieves.

Thieves deserve privacy too is quite the take.

When you reset a Mac, iPhone, or iPad before selling it, the original owner can no longer track it. Find My poses no problem at all for legitimately transferred pre-owned devices. It only poses a problem for thieves — a group Sweeney perhaps has an affinity for.

Update: Benjamin Mayo, on Threads:

If Find My didn’t exist, he’d says it’s a racket that Apple doesn’t help users recover their lost devices in order to sell more new hardware.

Ask WWDC ★

Interesting new site, offering AI-powered answers to WWDC-related developer questions. Ask a question, it tries to answer (some answers seem great, some not), and offers links to relevant WWDC sessions.

The small print at the bottom of the page disclaims “Ask WWDC is not affiliated with Apple Inc.” Instead it’s the work of developer Matt Spear, using a new tool he’s building that aims to allow anyone to build a similar “ask site”.