What it is
FindMyWeb is an open-source project by Misom, hosted on Codeberg, for building location trackers you actually own. Instead of buying vendor hardware, it uses tracking networks that already exist.
Apple’s Find My network works today. Google Find My Device and Samsung SmartThings are listed as goals in the project, but they are not implemented yet.
How Find My works
An AirTag doesn’t have GPS. It does something cleverer:
- The tag broadcasts a public key over Bluetooth Low Energy.
- Any Apple device that passes by picks it up, encrypts its own GPS location with that key, and uploads the report to Apple.
- Apple stores the report but can’t read it. Only whoever holds the matching private key can decrypt it and see where the tag was.
So any board that broadcasts the right kind of key can borrow the whole network of passing iPhones. That’s the trick FindMyWeb builds on.
The pieces
- FruityTag firmware, built on the Zephyr real-time OS, running on a Pro Micro nRF52840 board (a few dollars online).
- A Python FastAPI backend that talks to Apple through the FindMy.py library and fetches the encrypted reports.
- A Vue web dashboard that decrypts the locations and pins your tag on a map.
The catch
The server has to sign in to Apple with an Apple account to fetch reports. Hacker News commenters warn that this could get the account banned, so use a spare one.
There’s also a bigger issue with homemade tags in general. Security researchers at Positive Security showed in 2022 that DIY tags can be modified to avoid Apple’s anti-stalking alerts. FindMyWeb broadcasts one fixed key, and the project makes no claim that it evades those alerts.
Only track your own things.
License
FindMyWeb is released under the AGPL-3.0 license.
