From a technical and practical standpoint, any device with location tracking carries a significant privacy risk. Even strong encryption doesn’t eliminate the problem, because the weakest point in these systems isn’t always the math—it’s the humans. Keys can be stolen, accounts can be hacked, and access can be abused by the very people who are supposed to have it.
We’ve already seen this play out in the real world.
Police departments have abused phone-based location tools to monitor ex-partners and journalists.
Companies like Tile and Apple have had to add anti-stalking features because strangers were secretly tracking people.
And when location data is stored centrally, it becomes a prime target—like when U.S. agencies purchased phone-location data from marketing firms to track people without warrants.
Once tracking data exists, there is always the possibility that someone other than the “intended” person gets access—whether that’s a stalker, a data broker, a hacker, or a government agency. At scale, a tool built for convenience can quickly become a surveillance system.
So the issue isn’t just “what if someone abuses it”—the issue is that every trackable device creates an opportunity for abuse. Convenience turns into liability the moment access leaks, laws change, or someone with power decides they want the data.
From a technical and practical standpoint, any device with location tracking carries a significant privacy risk. Even strong encryption doesn’t eliminate the problem, because the weakest point in these systems isn’t always the math—it’s the humans. Keys can be stolen, accounts can be hacked, and access can be abused by the very people who are supposed to have it.
We’ve already seen this play out in the real world.
Police departments have abused phone-based location tools to monitor ex-partners and journalists.
Companies like Tile and Apple have had to add anti-stalking features because strangers were secretly tracking people.
And when location data is stored centrally, it becomes a prime target—like when U.S. agencies purchased phone-location data from marketing firms to track people without warrants.
Once tracking data exists, there is always the possibility that someone other than the “intended” person gets access—whether that’s a stalker, a data broker, a hacker, or a government agency. At scale, a tool built for convenience can quickly become a surveillance system.
So the issue isn’t just “what if someone abuses it”—the issue is that every trackable device creates an opportunity for abuse. Convenience turns into liability the moment access leaks, laws change, or someone with power decides they want the data.