Find Hub allows you to locate, secure, and erase your lost Android device. In addition to helping you find your device when it's online, Find Hub also has offline finding features that can help you find your device and accessories even if they're offline.
By default, your Android device stores encrypted recent locations with Google and participates in the Find Hub network, a crowdsourced network of Android devices that uses end-to-end encrypted location information to help Android users find their lost devices.
If these offline finding features are enabled on your device, Find Hub will use the best source available. This includes your device's current location if it's online or a stored encrypted recent location from when your device was last online. If you set a PIN, pattern, or password on your Android device, it uses crowdsourced encrypted locations from other devices in the Find Hub Network to help find yours.
Find Hub collects and processes data for the purposes of providing, maintaining, and improving these services, as described further below. The data processed by Find Hub is handled in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.
Find Hub also provides you with convenient access to Google Location Sharing, a Google Maps-powered feature that allows you to share your location with your friends and family. Learn how to manage your Location Sharing settings.Finding your online devices
When you use Find Hub to help find an online device, Find Hub communicates with your lost Android device and collects its current location and other information such as your device’s battery level, the Wi-Fi network it's connected to, and the strength of its Wi-Fi and cellular signal. Find Hub displays this information in the app to help you find your lost device.
Find Hub also collects information such as connection events (for example, when your earbuds were last connected to your phone) to help you find your accessories by displaying the location of the device to which your accessory is currently connected.
Find Hub also collects identifiers that associate your Android devices and accessories to your Google Account, and information about actions taken through Find Hub, such as whether your Google Account was used to lock or erase your device, and whether the action was completed successfully.
Finding your offline devices
Your lost device may not always be online. To help you find your offline devices, Find Hub can also collect, store, and use encrypted location information sent by your Android device and others participating in the Find Hub network.
Leveraging the power of a crowdsourced network of Android devices, the Find Hub network can help you find a wide range of items, including Android phones and tablets that are offline, Fast Pair accessories like compatible earbuds, and tracker tags that you can attach to physical assets like your wallet, keys, or bike.
The network has been developed with advanced safeguards, including end-to-end encryption, to help protect the privacy of everyone participating in the network.
How does crowdsourcing work?
Android devices participating in the Find Hub network use Bluetooth to scan for nearby items. If they detect your items, they securely send the location where they detected the items to Find Hub. Your Android device does the same to help others find their lost items when it detects them nearby.
End-to-end encryption
The Find Hub network encrypts the locations of your items using a unique key that only you can access by entering your Android device’s PIN, pattern, or password.
This end-to-end encryption, which is backed by the same technology used by Google Password Manager to secure your passwords, ensures that the locations of your items are private from Google. They're only visible to you and those you share your items with in Find Hub.
Important: If you haven't set a PIN, pattern, or password on your Android device, you must set one to take advantage of Find Hub network. Until then, by default, the network uses your Android device to help others find their items and your Android device stores encrypted recent locations for itself and connected accessories with Google to help you find your devices. To take advantage of the Find Hub network and have the best offline finding experience, set a PIN, pattern, or password on your Android device.
Data processed by the network
In addition to end-to-end encrypted locations, the Find Hub network processes data such as temporary device identifiers, timestamps when your device detects an item and when you request the location of your lost items, and info about the Fast Pair accessories that you have paired to your device or share with others. The Find Hub network uses this data for reasons like implementing features, delivering location info to the right person when an item is lost, and providing privacy and anti-abuse protections, such as the aggregation feature described below. Importantly, Google can’t identify you when your Android device shares the location of a detected item.
Individuals using the Find Hub network to find their lost items don’t receive any information from the network other than the location where their item was detected and approximately when their item was last seen.
Controlling how your device participates in the network
You can control how your Android device participates in the network at any time by visiting “Find your offline devices” in the Find Hub settings and choosing between the following options:
“Off”
If you'd prefer not to participate in the Find Hub network or have the ability to find your own items when they are offline by storing encrypted recent locations with Google, you can choose to turn off these offline finding features completely.
Even if you turn off offline finding, you can still use Find Hub to locate, secure, and erase your device or any connected FastPair accessories when they're online. If you don’t want to use Find Hub at all, you can go to Settings 
“Without network”
If you prefer not to participate in the Find Hub network, you can still find some of your items when they're offline, including your Android device and the Fast Pair accessories connected to it, like earbuds, by storing their encrypted recent locations with Google.
With this option, you can’t use tracker tags to find items like your wallet, keys, or bike, and you can’t rely on the broader network of Android devices to help you find your items. However, your Android device periodically sends an encrypted location for itself and its connected accessories to Find Hub. Only the most recent encrypted location for your device or accessory is stored.
Important:
- If you have a PIN, pattern, or password set on your Android device, the recent location info is encrypted using a unique key that only you can access by entering your Android device’s PIN, pattern, or password.
- If you don’t have a PIN, pattern, or password set on your Android device, you can still use this feature. The recent location info is encrypted using a unique key that only you can access by entering your Google Account password.
- If your device is running Android 8.0 or lower, it can't participate in the broader crowdsourced Find Hub network but your device will still store encrypted recent locations for itself and any connected accessories with Google. By storing an encrypted recent location, Find Hub can help you find your lost items even if they're offline when you search for them. On Android 8.0 and lower, you can adjust this setting at Settings
Google
“With network in high-traffic areas only”
By default, your Android device helps others find their items in higher-traffic areas. If you have a PIN, pattern, or password set on your Android device, you’ll also receive help finding your items in higher-traffic areas.
When the owner of a lost item requests its location, the Find Hub network will — by default — aggregate the location sent by your device with locations sent from other Android devices that also detected the lost item.
What is aggregation?
With aggregation, the Find Hub network waits until multiple Android devices have detected a lost item. Find Hub then shows the owner of the lost item an aggregated location calculated from the multiple location reports.
This helps people, including you, find items in higher-traffic areas where items are most often lost, like airports or busy footpaths, while helping protect the privacy of everyone whose Android devices share location info to the network.
Important: To get help from the network when finding your items, on your Android device, you must set a PIN, pattern, or password. Until then, the network uses your Android device to help others find their items. Your Android device also stores encrypted recent locations for itself and connected accessories with Google. You can read more about this function under Without network. Find Hub uses the best location available, whether from your own device or crowdsourced from the broader network (if you have a lock screen set), to help you find your item.
“With network in all areas”
If you want the Find Hub network to help you find your lost items in lower-traffic areas, you can opt in to sharing location info through the network to help others find lost items even when your device is the only one that has detected and shared a location for the item. Users who turn on this option help each other find items in both higher-traffic and lower-traffic areas. This option may help you find your lost items more quickly.
Important: To get help from the network when finding your items, on your Android device, you must set a PIN, pattern, or password. Until then, when you select this option, the network uses your Android device to help others find their items. Your Android device also stores encrypted recent locations for itself and connected accessories with Google. You can read more about this function under Without network. Find Hub uses the best location available, whether from your own device or crowdsourced from the broader network (if you have a lock screen set), to help you find your item.
Tip: You can delete all devices and their locations through the Find Hub app at any time.