Apple introduced its AirTag idea last year to help customers keep track of their misplaced products.
Users may attach the wireless dollar-sized device to their keys, wallets, purses, or even their cars. Apple can triangulate the data surrounding the chip using Bluetooth technology to determine the AirTag’s present location.
Security experts’ forecasts have been confirmed right in recent police records seen by Motherboard. AirTags have been a popular method for stalking and harassing women. According to Vice, AirTags has been cited in one-third of the 150 total police files filed in the last eight months. Women told police they started getting notifications that someone was tracking their whereabouts using an AirTag they didn’t own. Men in their lives, including ex-partners, husbands, and bosses, were recognized in half of the cases. These ladies have claimed that their present and former romantic partners were most likely the ones stalking or harassing them via the AirTags.
Some cases involved exes placing AirTags in their previous partner’s cars. One only realized she was being tracked when she found an AirTag beeping in her car. Women have identified that often their partners were concerned of there whereabouts and wanted to see if they were “cheating.” Multiple women who filed these reports feared the physical violence that could occur from the invasion of privacy. While not all cases involved ex-partners, there was an overwhelming number of reports that have come from women who feared for their safety. Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s executive director Albert Fox Cahn said,
“Stalking and stalkerware existed before AirTags, but Apple made it cheaper and easier than ever for abusers and attackers to track their targets.
Apple’s global device network gives AirTags unique power to stalk around the world. And Apple’s massive marketing campaign has helped highlight this type of technology to stalkers and abusers who’d never otherwise know about it.”
Despite Apple’s security protections, it appears that the company has yet to perfect the AirTag capabilities to ensure that users are not damaged.