Tile data breach might make you consider another Bluetooth tracker

Summary

• Security is paramount when choosing Bluetooth item trackers to protect your data and personal information.
• Life360’s recent security breach highlights the importance of robust personal security measures.
• Consider alternative Bluetooth trackers like Pebblebee Tag, which works on the Google Find My Device network, althought it has some issues.

When people are in the market for Bluetooth item trackers, looking for products from companies that have good personal security measures is of extreme importance. After all, the point of these trackers is ensuring that you don’t lose things, and on a macro level, you expect personal trackers’ parent companies not to lose your data. Security breaches are absolutely dreadful to deal with from both the customer and seller perspectives, and even the biggest companies in the world deal with them on what feels like a monthly cycle. Life360, the owner of one of — if not the — biggest tracker brands in the world in Tile, just suffered a security breach of its own, and it might be another reason to consider another Bluetooth tracker.

On June 11, Life360’s CEO, Chris Hulls, published a release addressing an “unauthorized access incident” in which Hulls says the company was the victim of a “criminal extortion attempt” (via Pocket-Lint). The reputable 404 Media first obtained samples of the data stolen and screenshots of tools that are utilized by internal Life360 systems for law enforcement requests. According to Joseph Cox from 404 Media, Life360 didn’t directly respond to the publication’s request for comment before publishing its own response. The anonymous hacker told Cox that they had requested payment from Life360 but received no response.

A breach is still a breach, regardless of what was stolen

While this is extremely concerning and will no doubt impact future opinions over Life360 and the Tile brand, thankfully, location data was not stolen in the breach (although, according to the hacker, it could have been). Hulls said in his statement that the unauthorized access was directed towards the Tile customer support platform, but not the service platform where location data in addition to credit card numbers, passwords, or identification cards are stored. However, customers’ names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and Tile device identification numbers were potentially stolen. We’ve always been a fan of Tile products, but this breach does make us pause for thought.

It hasn’t been a great few months of PR for Life360 and Tile trackers. Recently, Google launched a Find My Device network that rivals Apple’s Find My system with support for Bluetooth trackers from multiple companies. Notably, Tile trackers do not support Find My Device, and no future releases are planned that support the network. This is a major bummer for consumers who use Tile products and have Android smartphones. Interestingly, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, Randi Zuckerberberg, is on the nine-person board of directors for Life360. While this could be a motivating factor in the company’s shunning of the Google Find My Device network, no one can say for certain. Alternatively, people can buy the Pebblebee Tag, which works on the Google network, but it might not be ready for prime time yet.