Find My iPhone app wrongly leads users to a house in Atlanta

25 Feb 2019

Find My iPhone, an app has been wrongly sending dozens of users to one house in Atlanta for almost a year. The app helps in tracking stolen iPhones, and the two homeowners are frustrated after frequent complaints from iPhone owners.

Michael Saba and Christina Lee moved to a new Atlanta house in February. In a month, they were confronted by an enraged family looking for a stolen iPhone. Since then, they have received more than a dozen complaints from people, who accuse the couple of pilfering with their device. The couple reported four incidents happening in a month, and iPhone owners appeared at day, afternoon and night-time. Saba said that his biggest fear is being faced by someone violent or dangerous.

In June 2015, the couple had to step out of the house for an hour, after police searched the house, looking for a missing girl and her phone. Though the couple have managed to convince several people, some contact law enforcement to sort out the dispute. However, the issue does not seemed to be linked to a particular carrier as they have been contacted by various carriers, including T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Boost Mobile.

Security analyst Ken Westin, former CEO and founder of GadgetTrak points out that the technology relies on phone’s satellite-supplied GPS data, last connected cell towers, then to WiFi fingerprints and to the IP address. Westin added that Saba and Lee are most likely to face a case of cell tower triangulation flaw. The couple contacted Google and Apple officials, but they were not forthcoming. Even resetting their modem did not help either. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was also approached, once again to no avail. Currently, Saba and Lee are planning to rise the issue with Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson.

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