When Apple unveiled its AirTags in the spring of 2021, it said it would become much harder to lose your stuff. The new devices (trackers) are in fact used to track objects of various types to which they are attached, such as a bunch of keys, but according to a recent investigation by the New York Times they would often be used to do something else: spy on someone's movements without his knowledge. .
In recent months, various reports have circulated on social networks, especially in the United States, where Apple iPhones are widespread, through which it is possible to control the AirTags (which therefore have greater potential for use than other trackers with similar functions) . However, it is not clear how extensive the problem is, because law enforcement rarely has elements to investigate the reports and because Apple itself has not so far collected much feedback on the matter, or at least has not made it public.
The AirTags are small discs, with a diameter of about 3 centimeters, powered by battery and have a system inside them to send a radio signal (Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband) through which they can communicate with iPhones and other Apple devices.
After purchase, they must be activated and connected to your device via Apple's “Where's” application. They can later be attached to various objects, such as a bunch of keys or a bag, so you know their location and reduce the risk of losing them.
If you lose the keys attached to an AirTag at home, for example, you can use your iPhone to find them by following the instructions on the screen, or by making the tracker emit a sound. In the event that the keys are lost outside, for example on the street, the AirTag uses the iPhones of people passing by to reconstruct their position, so that the owner can receive a notification on his iPhone and can go and recover.
The system is quite efficient, especially if there are several people around using an iPhone or some other Apple device. But according to various privacy experts, AirTags could still be used to spy on others, despite the precautions that Apple has introduced to reduce this risk.
In the event that someone passes in the vicinity of an AirTag attached to a lost object, therefore away from the person to whom it belongs, his iPhone will not show any notification about the presence of the tracker, because the contact takes place in passing and for a few moments. Any notifications are instead shown when the AirTag remains for a long time in the vicinity of an unknown iPhone, just to make the smartphone owner notice it and reduce the risk of someone using that tracker to spy on it.
Various reports indicate that however the system does not always work at its best, especially if the iPhone is at a certain distance from the AirTag, such as not to detect its presence. Apple has introduced a function whereby after a day of no connection between the tracker and the iPhone with which it is registered, a sound signal is activated, which should make the presence of the device more evident (initially it happened after three days, then the company has shortened the interval). However, the sound signal is not very strong and there may be cases in which the AirTag used to spy on someone is not noticed.
The New York Times collected the testimony of Ashley Estrada, a 24-year-old girl from Los Angeles who had received a notification on her iPhone with the warning of the presence of an AirTag nearby. After some research, Estrada found an Apple tracker hidden behind the license plate of her car. He told his story on TikTok, in a video that was then widely filmed and which led other people to report having had similar experiences.
After finding the AirTag, Estrada got in touch with the LAPD, who advised her to go to a police station to eventually file a report. Not wanting to wait until the next day to get rid of the tracker, Estrada decided to take some pictures of the device and throw it away.
LAPD said they had not received specific complaints about the improper use of AirTags to spy on the movement of a vehicle. The New York Times did not detect any ongoing police investigations elsewhere, in different parts of the United States, but it did collect the testimony of other people with similar stories to Estrada's.
One of them said she received a notification on her iPhone about the presence of an AirTag while she was leaving the gym. When she got home, she called the police: she was told that she could only file a complaint if someone later showed up at her house and that the notification on her smartphone alone was not enough to say that someone was spying or following her. She later contacted Apple's customer service, which helped prevent the AirTag from continuing to connect to her iPhone. The tracker, perhaps hidden somewhere, had never been found.
Notifications about the presence of an AirTag do not always appear in a short time on an iPhone after the two devices have been in contact for a long time. Furthermore, in some cases the notification shown on the iPhone is generic and does not refer specifically to a tracker, which can lead to some confusion in those who own the smartphone. Apple says the different user experiences reported may depend on the iPhone model and the version of iOS, the operating system that makes them work.
AirTags are only compatible with Apple devices, while they do not work with Google's Android operating system, which is used on a large variety of smartphones. This means that a person using an Android smartphone cannot automatically receive a notification alerting them to the presence of an AirTag nearby, which may have been hidden to spy on their movements.
To mitigate the problem, Apple has released an application compatible with Android that allows you to detect the presence of AirTags. This means that you need to download and install it on your smartphone and use it periodically, which many people are unlikely to do.
Google could decide to introduce a function directly within Android to detect the possible presence for a long time of AirTag, or other trackers, unknown in order to make their identification easier. At the moment, however, there is no news about this eventuality. However, such a solution would go in the direction desired by those involved in the protection of privacy, who have long been asking for shared systems and standards for trackers in order to reduce risks.
