Thanks to some mathematical magic, that new number doesn't correlate with previous versions of the public key, but it still retains its ability to encrypt data such that only your devices can decrypt it. That public key frequently changes, "rotating" periodically to a new number.
How to set up find my phone Bluetooth#
This is the "beacon" that your devices will broadcast out via Bluetooth to nearby devices. As in other public key encryption setups, this public key can be used to encrypt data such that no one can decrypt it without the corresponding private key, in this case the one stored on all your Apple devices.
That should help you locate your stolen laptop even when it's sleeping in a thief's bag. In upcoming versions of iOS and macOS, the new Find My feature will broadcast Bluetooth signals from Apple devices even when they're offline, allowing nearby Apple devices to relay their location to the cloud. But while security experts immediately wondered whether Find My would also offer a new opportunity to track unwitting users, Apple says it built the feature on a unique encryption system carefully designed to prevent exactly that sort of tracking-even by Apple itself. When Apple executive Craig Federighi described a new location-tracking feature for Apple devices at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Monday, it sounded-to the sufficiently paranoid, at least-like both a physical security innovation and a potential privacy disaster.