Apple announced a joint partnership with Google in submitting a new industry specification to curtail unwanted tracking via Bluetooth location-tracking devices currently on the market. The new standard would provide tracker detection across both iOS and Android, regardless of the brand of the tracker being used. The proposal addresses the concerns surrounding the ease in which a person can be tracked by a sneaky location-tracker stuck to their person, possession, or vehicle by bad-faith actors using the technology to stalk individuals. Apple has previous released updates to their Find My service which will alert the victim if they are being tracked by an unknown AirTag, but this tech relies on the person having an iPhone. Third party detection apps exist on Android, but they're far from perfect and aren't currently officially supported by any of the parent companies making Bluetooth location trackers.

The proposal has received industry wide support from other manufacturers such as Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee. Advocacy groups such as The National Network to End Domestic Violence and the Center for Democracy & Technology have also contributed to the specification draft. The draft has been submitted via the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) with a three month review and comment period open to interested parties that would like to weigh in on the proposed specification. After this period Apple and Google will work to address concerns and feedback before putting the specification into production by the end of 2023, unifying a tracking alerts system on all future versions of iOS and Android.

As the internet evolves and becomes more of the organic, ever-evolving system that it has been coming towards, there is a need to leave behind old protocols that have served us well - but that are now standing in the way of progress. It's always like that with (but not limited to) technology, and now, it's time for TCP's (Transmission Control Protocol) review. The idea is for it to make way for its leaner, faster cousin with some upgrades: the Google-proposed - and meanwhile much-altered by IETF, the Internet Engineering Task Force - QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections).

QUIC has been built upon UDP (User Datagram Protocol), which is leaner than TCP, but lacks some much-needed features for a safe Internet. UDP doesn't incorporate Reliability (knowledge of missing data from the origin point), or Order (meaning that data is received in the order it is transmitted), things that TCP does include, right alongside Error-correction (detection of in-transit corruption of data).