Interesting that I never knew the “Find My” network has all my devices participating in finding other people’s devices, but I’m not surprised. Another reason I leave Bluetooth off by default.
Not the OP, but I would turn it off simply to conserve battery life. I'm still rocking a 6s, and my phone gets slower and doesn't last as long with every update.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the updates, but I'd also like to maximize the battery life.
But do you leave your phone's screen turned on 24x7?
I buy that there are more expensive things you can do with your phone, but even if turning off Bluetooth is only giving you back a small percentage of your total battery usage, that might genuinely be noticeable on an older device with an older battery.
I don't want my device sending or receiving any data using my data plan without my knowing. Do apps I have installed send shit constantly? Sure. But those are MY apps -- that's on me for using them. But if someone else has a tag, and I'm near it, my phone shouldn't be used to send/receive data about said tag at all. I definitely don't like this "we created a network of devices and everyone is opted in" setup.
Similar to the hub-bub raised of Alexa devices "sharing" internet connectivity.
1. No informed consent that your device can do this
2. No positive consent to use it
3. No positive consent to allow others to use it on your behalf
4. Who controls the spy network?
5. They are using your bandwidth and device (similar to theft of resources, albeit trivial amounts)
They already know where you are because of the GPS chip and mobile data. This is just the final step to find/fingerprint non-Apple and possibly non-internet connected devices.
Think of all the interesting things you could do with a worldwide bluetooth mesh network, and they choose to use it for surveillance. Lol.
