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I just wanted to make sure they were safe,’ or ‘Well, I thought they were cheating on me,’” he says. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, what’s wrong with this. Dodge has worked with people, for example, whose well-meaning parents have hidden AirTags in their vehicles. There’s a certain nonchalance to AirTag incidents, Dodge notes, that he doesn’t see in other stalkerware cases. “People sometimes don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, apparently, and use it to track someone’s location because, to them, it’s a natural use of the technology.” Dodge is the CEO of EndTab, which trains victim-serving organizations about tech-enabled stalking and harassment. “It’s not a spy tool marketed as a spy tool, because it’s marketed as an AirTag, and it’s Apple,” Adam Dodge told The Verge. Some experts also fear that the Apple logo on a tracking device may make an abuser less cognizant that they’re engaging in criminal activity. It’s not a spy tool marketed as a spy tool - it’s marketed as an AirTag As we discovered, the sheer accuracy of Apple’s network could allow an abuser to pinpoint a victim’s location more precisely than they could with, say, a Tile. “We’ve been hearing from advocates for years about them.”īut it does seem, from both our testing and our conversations with advocates, that AirTags pose a somewhat unique risk. “Five years prior to AirTags, we started hearing about tiny location trackers being found in teddy bears that had been ripped open and then sewn back up, in the lining of purses,” Olsen says. But the problem of tracker stalking long predates AirTags, and a dedicated network of advocates has been working on the issue for years.Įrica Olsen, director of technology safety at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, sees AirTags as a fairly small part of a much larger conversation. The prospect of key trackers being used to stalk people exploded into the tech media sphere last April when AirTags were released and reviewed for the first time. In this investigation, we set out to identify two things: the unique risks that AirTags pose and the specific steps Apple could take to make them safer. The item tracker market is filled with competitors - many of which lack the anti-abuse safeguards that AirTags have. A New York Times reporter successfully used them to track her husband’s every move (for a story).īut it’s also true that AirTags don’t exist in a vacuum. One Connecticut man was arrested for placing an AirTag on his ex-girlfriend’s car a Texas man admitted to doing the same to his estranged wife last month. Sports Illustrated model Brooks Nader recently reported finding a stranger’s AirTag in her coat. There’s no question that AirTags can be - and have been - abused. We’ve spent the past month testing these devices to see their potential risks for ourselves.
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But many early reviewers also sounded an alarm: an AirTag’s incredible accuracy also makes it an effective stalking tool.
APPLE AIR TAGS SERIAL NUMBER
You may need to provide police with the AirTag and/or the serial number which is tied to the owner's Apple ID.When Apple launched the AirTag last spring, many marveled at how effectively the coin-shaped trackers could locate lost items. (You can remove the battery by pushing the back of the AirTag and twisting it counterclockwise.) There isn't a way to report abuse to Apple, but you can take it to law enforcement for help.
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APPLE AIR TAGS HOW TO
Once you discover it, you can tap an iPhone or any NFC-compatible Android device to the AirTag and get instructions on how to disable it. If an AirTag is separated from its owner and is traveling with someone else - say you're walking with one in your bag without realizing - it will begin to play an alert sound. Some of you may have privacy concerns - what if somebody drops an AirTag in your bag to track you? Apple says it has thought about this. I tested it by tapping it to the back of an Android phone, and the Android phone launched a web browser that showed my phone number and said the item was lost. This even works if someone with an Android device finds it, as long as the device has an NFC chip - and most modern devices do.