I got a message regarding that too, and I just have cheapo Nokia devices. I found it very confusing trying to use the opt-out link... it takes you to a page with a map asking you to opt-in or "no thanks", and if you click the latter, it takes you to documentation explaining how the find-the-device scheme is supposed to work, but does not clearly indicate if you're opted out or with an obvious button labelled something "opt-out" related. I turned the feature off on my device, but somewhere there's probably the ghost of my old dead phones now trying desperately to call home.

I wanted to post this because I didn't see any discussion in the original blog post [1] about the actual privacy and security implications of Find My Device. In particular:

1. I usually have Bluetooth turned off on my phone for security reasons, will this respect that?

2. While Google tells us that the information will be encrypted, it seems to me that having your phone constantly pinging on Bluetooth (if this cannot be disabled per #1) is still a security/privacy leak in some situations, and something users should be aware of.

At any rate, I wanted to see this get more discussion before it goes live on a bunch of devices.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39971673

> Find My Device will use the network of over a billion devices in the Android community and store your devices’ recent locations.. This feature is turned on in 3 days. Until then, you can opt out of the network through Find My Device on the web

That sounds like some horrific malware-like behavior.

Apple has had this for several years and it has been quite a nice feature. That said, I don't trust Google with it. I assume they'd use it to better target ads, despite it saying otherwise in the post. They like to bait and switch.

I'm surprised they didn't pick a more unique name, considering Apple's feature is called "Find My". It seems like it will lead to people assuming interoperability between Apple and Google Find My networks.

That wouldn't cause me to panic yet. What caused me to panic was that Find My Device triggered itself on my phone (while I was silent, in my room, phone in the pocket) today, and I have no idea why. Google activity history does not say I've triggered it (It didn't interpret dog barking somewhere as "OK Google, where's my phone" apparently). So, is it a misclick when releasing a forced feature, or am I already hacked? :)

(Pixel Fold)