That app requires you to click a button every time you think you're being followed. Then it'll scan and report any results.
It won't warn you of an AirTag someone attached to your car, unless you make it a habit to constantly press "scan" all day.
AirGuard (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard) can do this for you, at the cost of battery life for having something scan for Bluetooth signals in the background all day. It's silly and honestly kind of sad that Apple's app doesn't provide this functionality.
Perhaps Google should add this functionality to Play Services. They already have an API capable of running Bluetooth background scans constantly in the form of the COVID contact tracing API, so the technology is nearly there already.
I may have been too terse. In more detail, if you want to know if someone tagged your car there is no point in running the scanner when you are out of range of your car. You only need to start scanning when you get in range.
If you start scanning then and find that there are no tags, you only need to keep scanning if there are people around who might be able to sneak a tag on while you are there without you noticing.
Once you get in and start driving you can stop scanning unless your threat model includes people tagging your car in the middle of your trip.
Sure, but this is clearly better than the situation for other existing technologies which are cheaper and can be used to the same ends.
I don’t deny that this behavior is bad, but the anti-Apple sentiment here is a bit strange given they provide mitigations unlike traditional gps tracking companies
There is now an app called „Tracker Detect“ from Apple (for Android) to search for AirTags around you. It hasn’t the ability to use AirTags like on the iPhone but at least you can find one that has been left around you.
That app, which isn't available everywhere (why?), requires users to perform manual scans. It doesn't warn users that they're being tracked like iPhones do.
They actually do start an audible alarm after being separated from their owner, starting sometime between 8 and 24h after separation. I don’t know the interval though.
