this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Crowd sourcing. AirTags and other similar trackers emit weak, short range Bluetooth beacons that any iPhone can quietly detect and report along with where they were when the beacon was seen. There are privacy implications for sure, but it works.
AirTags actually use an encryption scheme. The AirTag will broadcast a public key. The private key is stored in your iPhone and iCloud keyring. Once your phone fetches the location reports from apple's online service it can decrypt the actual location of the AirTag.