Recommendations for private tracker for keys?

Follow-Up: It's going great! I've stopped using my Tile tracker, I haven't lost my keys (yet), and I feel like I'm a LOT less trapped by my circumstances regarding them. Many thanks everyone! Many thanks indeed!

(See bottom for tl;dr.)

I'm the kind of person who loses their keys easily, so I love the idea of trackers: little devices that you can attach to your wallet, phone, or keyring that connect via bluetooth to an app on your phone to help you find it.

Problem is pretty much all the options I can find are run by companies with shitty privacy policies: Tile, Apple AirTag, Chipolo, and so forth.

Tile collects shitloads of data and is partnered with Amazon to boot;
Apple Airtags AFAIK only work with Apple devices, and besides it's Apple so no thank you; and
Chipolo also collects shitloads of data and shares information with data brokers and data collection companies of all stripes. No thank you.

In any case, I really don't need a location network larger than maybe 200 meters (about 650 feet). If I lose my keys, odds are it's either in my car or in my house, and my house is like 100 square meters (about 1000 square feet). So Bluetooth is really all I need. I don't even need to see it on a map; I just need for it to ding or something.

I'm currently using Tile but I really want to get away from it. Worst case scenario, I'll stop using the Tile, but I really am a forgetful little shit. Lol.

tl;dr – Looking for recommendations for ideally short-range Bluetooth trackers for keys, with decent privacy. Max required range = 200 m (650 ft). Also, pie tastes great. Cheers.

Edit: Added a single comma (because fuck syntactic ambiguity) and added follow-up. :)

27 comments

So... I'm going to be that person, yes, you already where it's going : how about no tech? How about a box, wooden, plastic, whatever, where you put the keys inside? Always.

I know it doesn't sound fancy, and as somebody who is turning the light on and off above his head with a keyboard shortcut I genuinely understand the challenge, but... in terms of privacy it is hard to beat.

Now... assuming you have HomeAssistant (as I do) and still really want to still do that and are ready to setup an "infrastructure" (to be able to do the zoning) this https://www.linuxmo.com/how-to-create-a-bluetooth-tracker-with-home-assistant-and-esphome/ looks like a proper solution that does work and is fine in terms of privacy. It does look like a lot of work to be honest, and it would only work in your house (or office if it's yours so you can do the zoning there too) rather than going through the network of mobile devices that Apple and Android do... but it would be a start.

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- Looks like you don't care for zoning... then I imagine whatever beacon paired solely with your phone would do.
  
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- Very good point about the low-tech method.
  
  As for the Home Assistance route, honestly, I've never really gotten into the whole "Internet of Things" thing.
  
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  never really gotten into the whole “Internet of Things” thing.
  
  Honestly... it's not worth it. It's fun, sometimes convenient, but nobody truly needs it except in some very specific situations. That being said it's also now relatively easy and cheap to setup, e.g RPi4 then add a Zigbee dongle (30e) with a Zigbee lightbulb (20e) or switch (15e) or sensor (e.g temperature for 15e), install HomeAssistant in an hour ... and voila, you have a setup you can play with and move from any home to any other in minutes. So it's not a "big" deal to start but again, what for. I personally do it because I love tinkering and want to feel that I can be at the "state of the art" of technology WITHOUT surveillance capitalism, so it's more an intellectual and more pursuit rather than a pragmatic approach. So I don't recommend it but I also had to clarify it's not that complex or expensive anymore.
  
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Just get in the habit of checking for your keys before you go through any door. It takes no mental effort once it's a habit. If they aren't in your pocket (or in my case a lanyard) then they are in that room or vehicle, so you should recover them before going out. This method worked for me 100% for decades. It only failed after I got married and my wife started stealing them. But it's usually not too hard to find her.

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- Agreed! "Keys-Wallet-Phone". Say this every time you go somewhere. Been using this for decades and it always works.
  
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- Imagine losing your wife. That'd be a strange experience!
  
  (Also, excellent idea. I used to do that, but didn't work 100% of the time; maybe with some modifications it might work better than it did...)
  
  Edit: I just realized that put me in a bookstore and suddenly I'm the wife that someone would lose. Lol.
  
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This reminded me that ages before the era of connectivity, there existed these: https://autobarn.com.au/ab/Autobarn-Category/Shop-our-Full-Range-by-Brand-at-Autobarn/Mdi/MDI-Whistle-Key-Finder---FZ-WKF/p/AC40602?srsltid=AfmBOoqqJ-QOeARB80pErKGSuJRtyjsPiMNpZdeKClSKn8s7IIHhfBfr

I never got one, but I wonder how effective they might be. I also can't whistle for shit, so...

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- Bastards really don't like me using a VPN. Tried 3 different servers and still hitting the block page.
  
  What's that page of?
  
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  Weird I'm in nordvpn in Australia and no issue.
  
  Whistle and it beeps... Apparently.
  
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Dang I'm interested too. I opted to just stick on a highly reflective sticker which works for me but interested to see what others have in mind

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What about a whistle key finder? I have no idea if it works though, might be really annoying and continuously going off.

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- Definitely something I looked into. Sadly, all of the ones I found were only purchaseable on Amazon or from Walmart.
  
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What kind of pie

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- Pie-flavored.
  
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  I’ve been waiting days for your reply. I’m very disappointed.
  
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