Where Is My Tag?: Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service

Leonardo Tonetto; Andrea Carrara; Aaron Yi Ding; Jörg Ott

doi:10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059

Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service

Leonardo Tonetto, Andrea Carrara, Aaron Yi Ding, Jörg Ott

Information and Communication Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

61 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Bluetooth trackers, or tags, have quickly become ubiquitous and widely supported by multiple vendors. Beyond their original design of finding lost objects, these devices have the ability to extend the capabilities of current wireless smart devices. Since its launch in 2019, Apple’s FindMy enables any devices from their brand to be easily tracked by more than 1 billion active iPhones and iPads on the market. While convenient, these systems may even serve further uses, including as a result of this work, crowd sensing and a side channel for mobile communication. But they also raise privacy concerns for their users. In this paper, we demonstrate how Apple FindMy can be used as a privacy-friendly tool for crowd monitoring, and how it may inadvertently leak information on a person’s location in case of deliberate tracking. Additionally, we design and evaluate a proof of concept protocol, using the Apple FindMy and a crafted tag using a simple microcontroller. We show how such system could be used to transmit information at very low bit rates, while the devices transporting the information remain unaware of this covert channel, yielding an out of band communication channel.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022
Editors	Liming Luke Chen, Tommaso Melodia, Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, Raffaele Bruno, Shameek Bhattacharjee, Pantelis Frangoudis, Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	396-405
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Electronic)	9781665408769
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059
Publication status	Published - 2022
Event	2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks - Belfast, United Kingdom Duration: 14 Jun 2022 → 17 Jun 2022 Conference number: 23 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/9842746/proceeding

Conference

Conference	2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks
Abbreviated title	WoWMoM
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Belfast
Period	14/06/22 → 17/06/22
Internet address	https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/9842746/proceeding

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Access to Document

10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059

Where_Is_My_Tag_Unveiling_Alternative_Uses_of_the_Apple_FindMy_ServiceFinal published version, 5.72 MB

Cite this

Tonetto, L., Carrara, A., Ding, A. Y., & Ott, J. (2022). Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service. In L. L. Chen, T. Melodia, E. E. Tsiropoulou, C. F. Chiasserini, R. Bruno, S. Bhattacharjee, P. Frangoudis, & V. S. S. Nadendla (Eds.), Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022 (pp. 396-405). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059

Tonetto, Leonardo ; Carrara, Andrea ; Ding, Aaron Yi et al. / Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service. Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022. editor / Liming Luke Chen ; Tommaso Melodia ; Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou ; Carla Fabiana Chiasserini ; Raffaele Bruno ; Shameek Bhattacharjee ; Pantelis Frangoudis ; Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla. IEEE, 2022. pp. 396-405

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title = "Where Is My Tag?: Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service",

abstract = "Bluetooth trackers, or tags, have quickly become ubiquitous and widely supported by multiple vendors. Beyond their original design of finding lost objects, these devices have the ability to extend the capabilities of current wireless smart devices. Since its launch in 2019, Apple{\textquoteright}s FindMy enables any devices from their brand to be easily tracked by more than 1 billion active iPhones and iPads on the market. While convenient, these systems may even serve further uses, including as a result of this work, crowd sensing and a side channel for mobile communication. But they also raise privacy concerns for their users. In this paper, we demonstrate how Apple FindMy can be used as a privacy-friendly tool for crowd monitoring, and how it may inadvertently leak information on a person{\textquoteright}s location in case of deliberate tracking. Additionally, we design and evaluate a proof of concept protocol, using the Apple FindMy and a crafted tag using a simple microcontroller. We show how such system could be used to transmit information at very low bit rates, while the devices transporting the information remain unaware of this covert channel, yielding an out of band communication channel.",

author = "Leonardo Tonetto and Andrea Carrara and Ding, {Aaron Yi} and J{\"o}rg Ott",

note = "Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.; 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM ; Conference date: 14-06-2022 Through 17-06-2022",

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Tonetto, L, Carrara, A, Ding, AY & Ott, J 2022, Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service. in LL Chen, T Melodia, EE Tsiropoulou, CF Chiasserini, R Bruno, S Bhattacharjee, P Frangoudis & VSS Nadendla (eds), Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022. IEEE, pp. 396-405, 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, Belfast, United Kingdom, 14/06/22. https://doi.org/10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059

Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service. / Tonetto, Leonardo; Carrara, Andrea; Ding, Aaron Yi et al.
Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022. ed. / Liming Luke Chen; Tommaso Melodia; Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou; Carla Fabiana Chiasserini; Raffaele Bruno; Shameek Bhattacharjee; Pantelis Frangoudis; Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla. IEEE, 2022. p. 396-405.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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Tonetto L, Carrara A, Ding AY, Ott J. Where Is My Tag? Unveiling Alternative Uses of the Apple FindMy Service. In Chen LL, Melodia T, Tsiropoulou EE, Chiasserini CF, Bruno R, Bhattacharjee S, Frangoudis P, Nadendla VSS, editors, Proceedings - 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2022. IEEE. 2022. p. 396-405 doi: 10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00059