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

Android Devices Are Being Auto-Enrolled in Find My Device

PSA: The following email is being sent to Pixel owners

subject: Your Android devices will soon join the Find My Device network

Find My Device network is coming soon

You can use Find My Device today to locate devices when they’re connected to the internet. With the new Find My Device network, you’ll be able to locate your devices even if they’re offline. You can also find any compatible Fast Pair accessories when they’re disconnected from your device. This includes compatible earbuds and headphones, and trackers that you can attach to your wallet, keys, or bike.

To help you find your items when they’re offline, Find My Device will use the network of over a billion devices in the Android community and store your devices’ recent locations.

How it works

Devices in the network use Bluetooth to scan for nearby items. If other devices detect your items, they’ll securely send the locations where the items were detected to Find My Device. Your Android devices will do the same to help others [1] find their offline items when detected nearby.

Your devices’ locations will be encrypted using the PIN, pattern, or password for your Android devices. They can only be seen by you and those you share your devices with in Find My Device. They will not be visible to Google or used for other purposes.

You’ll get a notification on your Android devices when this feature is turned on in 3 days. Until then, you can opt out of the network [2] through Find My Device on the web. Your choice will apply to all Android devices linked to \[YOUR EMAIL\]. After the feature is on, you can manage device participation anytime through Find My Device settings on the device.

Learn more [3]

[1]: https://support.google.com/android/?p=crowdsourcing

[2]: https://www.google.com/android/find/settings/fmdn

[3]: https://support.google.com/android/?p=find_offline_devices

How many people here are commenting based on their kids' experiences and not based on their own? Nothing in a 4 year-old trend (or whatever it is at this point) is going to be anticipated by people who were that age 10, 20, 30 years ago. (Sorry folks.)

My kids are just short of this age, so this article is very topical for me. I'm trying to encourage them to read, and they do, but it's also been difficult (in my experience) to make the transition to "big" books (i.e., anything other than a graphic novel). Books that I am 99% sure I read by their age, they don't seem to be responding to---and not just those books specifically, but anything in that class. And my kids have very low screen time.

The entire point is that crash recovery fails because you rarely test it. By making it the one and only code path, by definition, you will be testing it all the time, so it is much more likely to work in the first place.

(The obvious counterargument being that if there are different ways in which the software can crash, this is still not an adequate defense.)