Korea to welcome Apple's Find My feature, ending perplexing 15-year absence

Industry

Korea to welcome Apple's Find My feature, ending perplexing 15-year absence

Published: 05 Sep. 2024, 18:40 Updated: 05 Sep. 2024, 19:18

CHO YONG-JUN
cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr

Find My, Apple's service that allows users to track the locations of their Apple devices, as well as those of trusted contacts [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Apple is set to introduce its Find My feature in Korea in next spring, ending a 15-year absence whose cause has yet to be determined.

“Users in Korea will soon be able to use the Find My app to find their Apple devices, personal belongings and locate their friends and families while their personal data is being protected,” Apple said in a press release uploaded to the company’s Korean newsroom on Thursday.

The inability to use the feature in Korea has frustrated Apple users, with many local users speculating that the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) did not approve Apple’s request to service Find My in the country due to the supposedly strict government restriction on map data for national security reasons.

Such obstruction, however, can be ruled out as the media regulator said no approval was ever required.

“Apple did not have to register or receive the KCC’s approval for the operation of Find My in Korea,” an official from the agency told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday.

The KCC official said that the regulator was “aware of the dissatisfaction of the Korean users on top of the civil complaints, which is why [the KCC] have been in touch with Apple regarding the matter.”

More than 9,000 users signed a petition uploaded to the National Assembly’s website in July and August to start an official government investigation into Apple on why the service is not available in Korea and whether the U.S. tech giant is discriminating against the country.

While the petition didn't receive the required 50,000 signatures, it successfully brought the matter to the surface once again, which has persisted since the service was launched in 2010 but was not fully usable in Korea, with map and GPS-based tracking services were downright unavailable.

The feature uses Bluetooth, cellular and ultra-wideband (UWB) alongside GPS and map data to locate Apple devices linked to the user’s Apple ID and helps find and track its location. The service also allows for family and friends to share locations with each other.

In Korea, however, only the UWB-based tracking feature that allows users to precisely locate AirTags and AirPods within a short range, and a half-baked ability to label lost or stolen Apple devices, were available.

Apple declined to comment beyond the press release, but the KCC also released a statement Thursday afternoon that they “welcome” the decision to bring Find My to Korea, delighting Apple users who believed that the local market was not a priority for the iPhone maker.

Many of Apple’s global services were unavailable in Korea: its first official retail store in the country, Apple Garosugil, became the 500th Apple Store worldwide in 2018; Apple Pay launched in Korea in late 2023, almost 10 years after its original release and Apple Pay support for public transportation is yet to be available.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]