Police in West Seneca, New York, highlighted cases of AirTags being used to stalk women who initially did not know they were being tracked. Local news outlet WGRZ has details and comment from a senior officer.
“A female came in and she got this message notification on her phone that there was an Apple AirTag or device moving with her, so she came to the station,” West Seneca Lieutenant Jonathan Luterek said. Luterek says officers found an AirTag under the bumper of the woman’s vehicle. And just this week, a different woman got the same message on her phone.
“Officers checked over her car pretty thoroughly and weren’t able to locate it. It disconnected shortly after, so at this point it’s really unknown if it was on the vehicle, or if her phone got alerted about something nearby,” Luterek said. Officers do not believe the two cases are connected and say there is no reason to panic, but they do want to raise awareness.
Concerns about incidents such as this were raised when the device was first launched. Indeed, the features that alerted the women were introduced by Apple to reduce the risk. It is still something to be aware of though and important to know what to do if you find yourself in such a situation.
Check It Out: New York Police Highlight Cases of Women Stalked With AirTags
Charlotte:
One should think that it would take but little effort to add a safety feature to the AirTags.
For example, if one is adding it to an object that can be detected by an Apple device not owned by that user or a part of that user’s family plan, then it should default to alerting the the other party that their object/device can be tracked by another party, and ask them to opt-in to confirm acceptance. If they do nothing, then the AirTag should deactivate.
In fact, even if the object belongs to a member on the family plan, they too should be alerted that their device (and they themselves) can be tracked, in which case, adult family members should be given the option to opt out or modify the tracking options (eg rename the device).
Some of this might be simply bugginess in the product. The AirTag that I purchased for my daughter paired with my wife’s iPhone simply when she put her phone on my desk charger near that AirTag. When she next searched for her purse, both the AirTag in the purse and the one on my desk alerted.
Apple should be able to fix all of this with a pan-platform update.
“Concerns about incidents such as this were raised when the device was first launched. Indeed, the features that alerted the women were introduced by Apple to reduce the risk. It is still something to be aware of though and important to know what to do if you find yourself in such a situation.”
This wasn’t the first tracking device and at least Apple has a way of letting the person know.