Tile’s lack of encryption could make tracker owners vulnerable to stalking

The article discusses a security vulnerability in Tile's Bluetooth tracker devices that could enable stalkers to track victims. Researchers have found that Tile's anti-theft mode, which makes trackers "invisible" on the network, can be exploited by bad actors to intercept unencrypted information from the tags, such as their unique IDs and MAC addresses. This allows them to track the movements of the tags using other Bluetooth devices or an antenna. The article also mentions that while other tracker companies rotate their tags' unique IDs and MAC addresses, Tile only switches up the unique ID, making it easier for attackers to link a MAC address to a specific tag. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has raised concerns about these issues and is working on a set of standards for Bluetooth-enabled trackers, including the need for frequent MAC address rotation and encrypted data transmission. Tile's parent company, Life360, has acknowledged the issue and claims to have made "a number of improvements" since the researchers reported the problem, but did not provide details.