Peter Holley reports for The Washington Post, “For months now, angry strangers have been showing up at Christina Lee and Michael Saba’s front door with a curious demand: ‘Give me back my stolen phone!'”
“Sometimes, families will show up; other times, it’s groups of friends or a random person with a police officer in tow,” Holley reports. “Despite using different service providers, everyone who bangs on their door has been led to the suburban Atlanta home by a phone-tracking app. The problem — as the couple desperately tries to explain visitors — is that the missing phones aren’t at the house and never have been.”
“The pair doesn’t understand why exactly, but both Android and iPhone users on various networks are being directed to their house by phone-tracking apps,” Holley reports. “Once the awkward situation is explained, most lost-phone-seekers are understanding. But the couple told Fusion that a smaller number of people who place absolute faith in their tracking technology are convinced that the couple is lying, provoking potentially volatile conflicts. ‘My biggest fear is that someone dangerous or violent is going to visit our house because of this,’ Saba told Fusion by email.”
“So why is it happening?” Holley asks. “So far, nobody is entirely sure; but several theories have been floated by experts.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This isn’t a “Find My iPhone” problem, it’s a data problem. GIGO.
In instances where triangulation via cellular towers doesn’t work, a tracker will attempt to use the “the last known wi-fi signal the device found,” according to the BBC.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dialtone” for the heads up.]