How does the Find My Apple feature find lost iPhones without Internet?

Apple's Find My feature can locate lost devices even when GPS and Internet are shut down.

At the WWDC event on Monday, June 3, Apple introduced the Find My feature, which helps locate the lost device even when GPS and Internet were shut down.

According to Apple, Find My works by continually sending Bluetooth signals to intermediate devices in the nearby Apple ecosystem, temporarily borrowing these devices' Internet connections to relay this signal to the cloud. , helps users detect the location of stolen devices.

Picture 1 of How does the Find My Apple feature find lost iPhones without Internet?

Find My features are included from Find My Phone and Find My Friends apps. Photo: The Verge.

However, many people are concerned about the privacy of users when using this feature, whether Find My will continue to monitor when users do not want to.

Answering this question, Apple said, this feature is built on a unique encryption system, capable of preventing all cases of location data theft. Not only does it block users of intermediary devices from accessing data, even this complex encryption program prevents Apple from doing so. The only person who knows my iDevice is the device owner, so users don't need to worry about privacy.

Picture 2 of How does the Find My Apple feature find lost iPhones without Internet?


Find My app has the ability to locate devices offline. Photo: Apple Insider.

In addition, the process of sending signals only uses tiny pieces of data on existing network traffic, so it doesn't consume much network and battery capacity.

According to Apple, to avoid leaking data location users need to own at least 2 devices of the company. When a machine is lost, it will generate a constantly changing code. This code is identified by nearby Apple devices and uploaded to the cloud of location data. Only the remaining Apple device will have a key to decode that location, so data leakage will not happen.

Of course, Find My operating process is in fact much more complicated. From now until being released later this year along with macOS Catalina and iOS 13, this feature is still subject to change.

Update 08 June 2019
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