Post by @tino@mountains.social

2026-11-04 08:51 UTC

Has anybody here solved the following conundrum? - wanting a bluetooth/gps tracker to be able to recover a stolen bicycle (or other use case) - not trusting Google, Apple and other companies to not use/sell/lose data - using a deGoogled phone and Linux computer (in my case, LineageOS and Fedora) That is, I would want to be able to recover my bicycle if stolen, while keeping my daily movements as private as possible. Enshittified web search has not helped much.. #askFedi #fediHelp #bikeTooter #bicycle #cycling #biking #security #privacy #infoSec #opSec #deGoogle #lineageOS #linux #fedora

Replies (2)

@tino@mountains.social 2026-11-04 08:56

Found this marketing tagline on a company website: "Love knows no distance, but we do. In fact, we know *exactly* where your fave people and things are." which to me is more creepy than reassuring..

Open ##5478959
@AimyBits@lgbtqia.space 2026-11-04 11:17

@tino@mountains.social the reason an air tag is so small is because it can outsource most of it's functionality to smartphones. It doesn't need it's own gps reciever or internet connection. That model only works due to the amount of iphones being carried around. Similar story for google. If you want to avoid that, there is no alternative to bringing your own network interface as well as gps reciever. Both of these add a lot of power draw, which leads to a larger battery. All that combines to make it more expensive and bulky.

Open ##5478982