Cops came to our house a couple weekends ago looking for a stolen iPad. Turns out the Apple “find my device” reported our address because someone chucked the stolen iPad in a field across the street and apple tech reported the coordinates of my wife’s phone since it was the closest apple device that phoned home detecting the (stolen) device (they have some “anonymous” reporting feature in the background, I think based on low energy blue tooth).
At best, this was inconvenient for us. The cops presumed guilt. I allowed them to search my yard but didn’t invite them into my house as we knew we were innocent of any wrongdoing. But, it definitely freaked us out.
This could be a lot worse. What if instead of calling the cops, the people who had their property stolen looked at “find my device”, found my house at the center, and showed up at my door armed and angry? Someone could easily have been seriously wounded or killed.
I sent feedback to Apple. They weren’t too receptive.
Burn your Apple devices, or at least disable location services.