Tail it Cat Tracker
In this article we will be featuring the Tail it Cat Tracker. The cat tracker was developed by Tail it Technologies AS, who is a GPS manufacturer based in Trondheim, Norway. The GPS device is one of the smallest pet trackers on the market, being the size of a coin. Not only is it one of the smallest, but it also comes with a battery life of two weeks.
GPS for cats. Can collars be safe?
GPS cat collars have been a heated topic for a long time. A lot of people disagree with the use of collars on cats, because it can be dangerous for the cat. Tail it feels you should not put the cat in any danger by wearing a GPS tracker. A GPS tracker should give you peace of mind.
That is why the Tail it Pet also comes with a CatSafe collar. This collar opens automatically under pressure. So if your cat is wearing the GPS and gets stuck, there is no risk of the cat choking. The collar will open automatically, and the cat will get away. And since it is a GPS tracker, you can just go back and pick it up if it falls off.
Safety in a Cat Tracker
One of the biggest motivations for Tail it when manufacturing GPS devices, is safety. Cyber security in GPS devices have been proven to be terrible. Many of the Cat Trackers you can get on the market today, are off brand trackers bought from Asia, as well as the applications that comes with the device. This means the safety in these products are rarely up to date.
You might not think the data gathered by your pet tracker is that important. But when you think about it, the pet is almost always around you. A lot of sensitive information can actually be gathered from a cat tracker. It is very popular in Asian GPS devices, to have listening options included. We have seen this in many different GPS trackers for pets. For most this feature is useless, and sometimes it is not even advertised.
Imagine for a moment that the President has a GPS Tracker on his dog. This tracker has a listening function, but the President is not aware of it. Since the cyber security in the device is so terrible, anyone would be able to listen in on the President since the device is not secured. Cybersecurity is very important in today’s tech world, and Tail it aims to take the step forward.
Encrypted Cat Tracker
What makes the Tail it cat tracker so special, is that it is encrypted. This mainly helps with the cyber security in the product, but also has other uses. The device being encrypted means that the device has an encryption key, and the application server has an encryption key.
This makes the code sent from the device to the server unreadable for anyone trying to access the data. This also allowed the code being sent from the device to the server to be shrunk. This makes the device use minimal data, while also keeping a battery life of two weeks.
Tail it started developing this encryption in 2017, after getting funded by the Norwegian Research Council. They were given a scholarship to develop this encryption, and to implement it in their GPS devices. The same Scholarship was given to Edvard Moser, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his research on the human brain. This scholarship isn’t exactly given to anyone.
Best in test
During the summer of 2018, the Tail it Cat Tracker went through multiple test in the Norwegian media, and passed with flying colors. The biggest hunting magazine in Norway, called “Jakt”, gave it a 9/10. This version of the Pet tracker had a 420mAh battery and an expected 10-day lifetime. The test panel used the tracker for 11 days with updates every single day. The magazine writes: “Our experience is that you can trust Tail it when you need it.” Hopefully, Katzenworld will have our own review up soon!
Conclusion
Tail it cat tracker is definitely something to look out for. They have expanded to start selling internationally, and hopefully, you will soon see the Tail it cat tracker in a store near you. Right now they are available at https://www.tailit.com/pet. They are showing that GPS cat collars can be a positive thing, and will help give you peace of mind.
Sounds like a nice product.
My two cats won’t entertain any collars. Don’t know why.
Have you tried different materials? Could just be the types of collars tried.
Yes I have, have even made my own. With a still dab of essential oil diluted of course. One that was reccommended by a friend, vet, and qualified aromatherapy consultant.
That’s a shame. Sometimes a different collar can make a difference.
I have indoor cats so this would not be useful most of the time but it would be useful during emergencies. We live in a hurricane prone area and have already once evacuated with our cats once. Having this on them would add to our peace of mind because if our cats got separated from us in a strange place we may never find them without it.
Hi guys! Thanks so much for your feedback. @Charles The subscription that comes with it, can also be frozen for up to 5 months at a time without cost 🙂 So it would be optimal if only used for emergencies! Have a nice day everyone 🙂
I think next hurricane season I will look into it.
Hi Tail it Technologies, I have a podcast, http://www.communitycatspodcast.com and would enjoy having you on the show if you are interested. You can reach me at stacy@communitycatspodcast.com. Thanks!
I’ve passed it on! Thank you 🙂
Love it. We too live in an area with natural disaster potential. We also run a rescue for seniors and special needs. They are all chipped but that doesn’t help us find them. This seems useful for a small dog too. My dog has a Whistle, but even that is large on him since he’s only 16 pounds. Not much out there for very small dogs either. We had two cats that traveled over 10K miles with us. This would be great.
Ordered product, was incorrectly charged, have not received (21 days and counting), now customer service is not responding. Moving shortly, which was my main reason for ordering.
Basically, I don’t trust a company that can’t find its own product to locate my cat. Good luck and order at your own risk.
(To be clear, I don’t hold this blog accountable in any way.)
Hi Ruby! That doesn’t sound right. What e-mail did you try to reach? Why don’t you send me an e-mail to mbh@tailit.com, and I’ll help you out so we can figure out what has happened.
Hello Martin. We actually have been in touch, or I at least have been in touch with someone at your company named Martin via support@tailit.zendesk.com. (Ruby is a public blogging handle, not my real name.) I posted this comment after a frustrating few days in which I wasn’t getting any reply from your company, and after having placed an order more than three weeks prior. You (or someone) have since been in touch to try to rectify the situation and expedite the delivery of my product, which I appreciate. As I told Marc-Andre, if and when I do receive my Pet Tracker, I will absolutely come back here and write an additional comment detailing how you resolved the situation.
I don’t want to be unkind or unfair. I was just stating my frustration, and relaying my honest experience in the three-plus weeks since I had ordered your product up until that point.
I truly hope to be back here in the next couple of days, reporting that the speedy resolution you promised in our recent email conversation did take place, and praising the Tail It.
Hi again Ruby!
I totally understand your situation, and I don’t think you were unfair. If I ordered something and never received it, I would be frustrated as well. The reason I stepped in is because we take our customer service very serious, so my reaction was to step in and figure out why something might have fallen through the cracks. We hope to hear from you very shortly when you receive your device. Again, don’t hesitate to contact me if anything has happened. Since we’re located in Trondheim, Norway, our timezones are a bit different, but I should still be available and reachable.
best regards, Martin
Martin,
It is now more than a month since you emailed me that my order was “marked complete.” I have yet to see any evidence that it will be fulfilled. As for taking your customer service seriously, you might want to let the other person on your help team know about this policy, as I have been dismissed and basically given the runaround while the shipping company is blamed repeatedly.
I want accountability from your team, I want a refund, and I also want to warn others not to make my the mistake of trusting you and believing your demonstrably false claims.
(THIS BLOG IS IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF THESE ISSUES. THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR TRIED TO HELP RESOLVE THIS ISSUE, SO THANK YOU TO THEM.)
So, in the course of due diligence, I would like to report that about 1.5 months after I placed my order (and well after the move I ordered it for), I have finally received my product. I am still testing it, but so far am cautiously optimistic. I think the gentlemen at the company were overly optimistic with what they felt they could deliver. This is not uncommon with startups; however it should not be considered acceptable. They were unfailingly polite.
Just an FYI, the pictures in the article are either of a prototype or hopelessly out-of-date. The tracker I received was an unexpectedly large black box. The cat pictured with the blue one on would fall over wearing it. Luckily for me, my cat is more of a mini-wildcat and quite sturdy and adaptable.
Oh NO! i was just about to order one of these and hearing about your experience and the large size of the tracker, I’m now feeling far less interested in ordering it. Would you mind telling me what the dimensions of the device are? I’ve also been struggling to get answers on basic things like product specs and shipping issues, I’ve probably spoken to every customer agent on their team, and while they are polite, they seem poorly-trained and slow to resolve issues. It made me want to bash my head against the wall. I guess that the the problem with ordering from such a new company.
Hi Amy,
Apologies your comment was stuck in our junk folder. We do have a trial unit at home now and I’ll measure it. Our interactions with the company have been positive and they are the only one that allows you to pause your subscription which is a huge benefit.
Update: Sizing is: 41x29x12mm
Do let us know if you need any help but as mentioned we’ve been very impressed with these guys.
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