Ever since Apple’s AirTags hit the market last year, we’ve heard stories of them being used for unintentional purposes: to chase. It has been a special problem for womenand now it seems to be even more serious than people realized.
This is stated in the study of the motherboard (Opens in a new tab), which covered reports from eight major police departments covering an eight-month period. At the time, there were 150 notifications mentioning AirTags, including 50 from women who had received notifications that AirTag was being tracked.
Half of the 50 women who suspect a man has been responsible for setting up an AirTag – with the aim of following them and harassing them. In one case, a woman had called the police because a man had increased his harassment; The report says she put AirTag in her car and threatened to “make her life hell”.
Other cases involved an angry ex-husband cutting a woman’s tires and leaving an AirTag in her car, as well as a woman who reported having found AirTags attached to her car many times. She claimed that it was her ex, who has a history of assault, where he could show up at places at the same time as her.
Ex-spouses who appear in a mysterious way are a recurring story in the reports, as well as fears and threats that the person who set up the AirTag intended to cause bodily harm. However, there were some reports from women in active contact with the man who was following them, some of them becoming violent when faced with it.
Out of 150 reports, only one was about a man who suspected that his ex-girlfriend was chasing him with AirTag. Less than half of the reports mention that AirTags was involved in some kind of robbery.
It is worth noting that these reports came from only eight police districts, out of the thousands that exist in the United States. It also does not take into account other countries where AirTags are for sale. In other words, 50 chase reports are probably just scratching the surface.
What is Apple doing about it?
Apple has been criticized for AirTags and their ability to be used for criminal purposes – especially chasing. iOS has had features that automatically detect unknown AirTags since fobs came on the market in April 2021, and it has received many updates since, but it’s clearly not enough.
To begin with, it ignores the fact that Android users exist and may be subject to AirTag tracking. Knowing that AirTag is monitoring you is also not as useful as being able to track it down. Apple launched Tracker Detect (Opens in a new tab) app for Android at the end of last year. Unfortunately, the app does not work automatically, as it does on the iPhone; the user needs to actively search for nearby AirTags, which does not help much if you have no idea that you are being tracked.
Apple has also promised to launch precision tracking features to help victims catch unknown trackers. This should also make it clearer if someone is being tracked with AirTag.
Unfortunately, this feature will not be available until later this year, and Apple only announced support for iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 devices – presumably because it relies on super-broadband technology not available in other devices.
Clearly, more needs to be done to prevent this kind of abuse. Google may soon have plans to add an operating system sensor to Android, which will be a useful tool to have, but it is not available to help people who are being tracked right now.
How can you avoid AirTag chasing?
AirTags work by using the Apple Find My network, which means that any iPhone that goes on stage can pick up AirTag tags and send them to Apple automatically. Given the number of iPhones in use at any given time, it is therefore very easy to track down where AirTag is.
This is great for finding lost keys, but it also makes AirTags an effective and inexpensive weapon for chasing. More than if the perpetrator would use something like tile, which does not have the same scope as Apple’s network.
It pays to know how to protect yourself and how to flag down strangers who may be following you. We have detailed instructions that explain how to see if AirTag is following you, but here’s the basics.
iPhone users: Anyone rocking an iPhone 6S or later can flag unknown AirTags, provided they have iOS 14.5 or later. Go to Find mine app, tap Me the icon at the bottom right and be sure Product safety notifications is active.
Android users: There are two options for you. The first is Apple’s own Tracker Detect (Opens in a new tab) app, though this requires you to manually scan for misleading AirTags and requires Android 9.0 or later.
If you want something automatic, try AirGuard (Opens in a new tab). This will regularly look for misleading AirTags and it works on older devices up to Android 5.0. It can also detect trackers from other companies like Tile.
All others: If you do not have a smartphone, or your phone is too old for a specific tracking application, you do not have many options. But AirTag will start beeping if it is separated from paired iPhone or iPad for more than 24 hours – so listen for unexpected beeps. This is not a safe solution, as the pipe is not terribly loud, but it is better than being completely unaware of its presence for a long time.
Did you find AirTag rogue? Be sure to grab the serial number, either from the discovery application or by removing the back of the AirTag, before continuing to turn it off.
To do this, press down on the center of the back cover and turn counterclockwise. This opens the AirTag, which allows you to remove the battery inside. When this is done, you should report the incident and the AirTag serial number to the police. Apple can then use the number to track down the owner of the AirTag.