A lawyer representing Portland's homeless population, that's who.
From AppleInsider's "Apple's AirTag used to monitor alleged illegal dumping of homeless' property" posted Wednesday:
A lawyer in Portland, Ore., this week said a contractor broke the law when it allegedly trashed a number of items belonging to people living at a homeless encampment. And he has the AirTag tracking history to prove it.
According to a report from the Portland Tribune on Tuesday, Michael Fuller attached AirTag devices to 16 personal items belonging to homeless residents camping in Laurelhurst Park, an area that was swept by city contractor Rapid Response Bio Clean. Members of the homeless community had in the past complained that the city was illegally dumping their belongings during such clean-up operations.
Following the sweep, Fuller in a tweet shared what appears to be a screenshot of the Find My app, showing some of the trackers ended up at what looks to be a waste transfer station. Others were spotted by Apple's Find My network at random locations...
Two tracked possessions — a painting and a French press — did not appear to be unsanitary in photos provided to the Portland Tribune and would therefore not be candidates for the trash heap. Fuller in a statement said all items were clean and useful.
My take: There are million uses in the big city for Apple's bluetooth trackers.
Heck, even if there is video of the aforementioned French-Press and artwork being taken by the contractor, the law only protects the homeless. If the contractor thought the artwork and press were owned by someone with-a-home, the cited law doesn’t apply.
Meaning – Portland has created a specific law where homeless have more rights than other classes of tax-paying citizens.
However, a good question is how admissible Air Tag data is in a court ruling?
-RJ
“Due to the tracking technology, we have proof positive that Rapid Response broke the law and took property that was perfectly clean and sanitary, and belonged to homeless people, and took them to the dump,”
I have been to many of the homeless encampments and it is hard to show the above two things. I have seen pictures, bikes, lanterns and dozens of other things (mostly in not working order) strewn about with no clear “ownership”. “Property” shifts from person to person and is then discarded on the ground or outside a tent. “Clean and sanitary”? Not even close to true.
I used to do Mileage runs on United Mileage Plus from Los Angeles to Dulles (LAX-IAD) to maintain Premier status, nice 10 hr turnaround on 777’s.