Just because the app is free doesn't mean I should be forced to use it to protect myself.

I'm not purchasing the device, I'm concerned about people tracking folks without their consent.

Tile doesn't phone home via devices with no intervention of the users. Tile is opt-in to send data. My phone won't taddle on me to the Tile servers without my consent. Apple isn't allowing users to choose whether their phone is participating in the tracking network or not.

Other trackers aren't nearly as disposable, available, or covert. A device with a GPS antenna and a modem will run out of battery in a few days. An Airtag can last months.

They're enabling it with their tech and the design of the distributed tracking system, where other people's devices can be used to track others without the consent of the parties involved.

You don't need to be intimate, people are having their cars tagged to be stolen later, for instance, by having a airtag thrown into the wheel well. People are being stalked by exes, and their own devices are sending their location back without any way to disable it. This is a bad design.

So the Apple business model is to force people who don't already have their products to buy them or be at risk of stalking by Apple's own products?

But I shouldn't be forced to install this app and keep it running just because some company I don't do business with designed a product in a way that puts the public at risk.

I don't have an Apple device, that isn't a universal solution.

Are you sure you didn't just watch the Linus video and take one of his main talking points?

It did, the original systems used radioactive ink. The picture isn't what the OP claims.

Yes but you've got the background completely wrong.

One of the big giveaways BTW is that NCR didn't build anything close to the first unit, they came in after a few years of custom built machines by small firms.

You can't have a 3rd or 4th option without changing the voting system, which isn't going to happen via the GOP or old power Dems. Grassroots organizing within the Dem party is the only way to get this done right now.