The researchers say that the tile tracking signs can be exploited

Tile tracking, used To determine everything from lost keys to Stolen petsUsed by More than 88 million people around the world, According to the mother company of tiles, life360. But researchers who examined the trace technology have found design defects that would allow chasers – or the manufacturer is likely to be the same – raising the site of tile users and their devices, unlike the claims that the company made about the security and privacy of its devices.

The researchers-Axia Kumar, Anna Rimacker, and Michael Specter of the Georgia Institute of Technology-liner that each sign broadcasts an unique and uniquely identified title can be captured by other Bluetooth devices or radio frequency antennas in an award area to track the owner’s movements and owner. The brand site and the Mac address and its unique knowledge are also sent to a non -encrypted to Tile’s servers, where the researchers believe that this information is stored in a clear text, giving the tiles the ability to track the site and its owners, although the company claims that it does not have this possibility.

The researchers say this would give tiles the ability to conduct “collective monitoring” to its users and may provide this information for law enforcement and others.

The researchers also found that Tile’s anti -extraction protection can be undermined if the chaser can an anti -theft feature of the tiles with their signs. In addition, a person can framing the tile owner falsely to prosecute by recording the non -encrypted broadcast that makes his tile device and restart these broadcasts in the vicinity of the other tile user, which makes it seems that the former is chasing the latter.

The researchers reported the results of the parent company Tile, Life360, last November, but they say that the company stopped communicating with them in February. Wared Life360 sent an email calling for a response to the problems raised by the researchers, but a spokesperson sent a response that did not express problems explicitly. Email only said that the company “has made a number of improvements” since the researchers report received, without specifying what it is.

Tile sells stand -standing signs, but its tracking technology is also included in laptops, headphones, smart watches and other products that companies such as Dell, Bose and Fitbit. The researchers have reversed the tile and mobile application that works with the Android system used with Mate Mate, which is a sign of the most popular company. They say that their findings may not apply to other models of tiles or tile technology used in the products made by third parties.

How do tile signs work

Tile followers are similar to the Apple, Google and Samung tracking signs. But the tile system differs in important ways. Like others, the brands of the battery powered tiles and use Bluetooth to broadcast its location on the user’s phone. Users can nullify a mark in a bag, luggage, or vehicle, or attach them to keys, phone, laptop, or even pet collar to track the location of these elements.

Each tile tile broadcasts the brand’s Mac address and a unique identifier, which changes periodically. If a component associated with the owner of the owner is lost, using its Tile app, it can direct the mark to remove a sound to determine its location. For elements away, the system depends on the network of phones that belong to other tile users. This is also capturing broadcasts from any tile device near them. Since 2021, episode cameras, echo devices and tile signs have been combined into the Amazon sidewalk network, which means that Ring and Echo devices can also capture the tile signs site.