The Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers (DULT) standard is a cross-platform initiative aimed at preventing Bluetooth trackers such as Apple AirTags from being misused to track people without their knowledge. The specification allows iOS and Android devices to detect and alert you when a tracker compliant with the standard is traveling with you but its owner is not.
Apple said in a press release that you’ll get “[Item] A “Found Me Moving” notification on your iPhone if an unknown Bluetooth tracker moves with you “over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with.” You’ll be able to see the tracker ID, ask the tracker to play a sound so you can find it, and even learn how to turn it off.
Apple had to retroactively add anti-tracking features to its AirTags after their launch in 2021. Screenshot: Victoria Song/The Verge
Although Apple released AirTags without the ability to alert Android users if someone was tracking them, it fixed it in the Android app a few months later. Google implemented unwanted tracking alerts on Android that detected AirTags starting in July 2023. However, as the improved Find My Device network becomes available to Android users, the potential for third-party devices to unknowingly track people could skyrocket.
To prevent these types of serious privacy concerns, Google said it will wait until Apple implements DULT in its ecosystem before adding support for Bluetooth tracker tags to the Find My Device network. Now that Apple has added this standard to iOS, it is likely that many of these new Bluetooth trackers will be launched soon.
Correction, May 13: An earlier version of this article reported that Google started rolling out alert support last year on Android. However, Google has just started rolling out support for this standard.
Credit : www.theverge.com
