Apple was recently sued by two women who claim AirTags were used to violate their privacy.
In the weeks following the launch of the AirTag, privacy advocates expressed concerns about the tracking device. Apple instructs users to attach the Bluetooth tracker to important items that they might lose, such as keys, wallets, or backpacks. Unfortunately, despite Apple’s claims that the AirTag is “stalker proof,” a number of worrying reports suggest otherwise.
AirTag privacy concerns raised in new lawsuit
According to one of the two women suing Apple, an ex-boyfriend planted an AirTag in the wheel well of a tire on her car in order to find her after she moved to avoid his harassment. He had also colored the AirTag with a sharpie and tied it up in a plastic bag to disguise it.
The other woman says her ex-husband, who had been harassing her for her whereabouts, put an AirTag into her child’s backpack to track their movements. She removed and attempted to disable the first AirTag, but found another in the child’s backpack soon after.
“Ms. Doe [the second woman] continues to fear for her safety—at minimum, her stalker has evidenced a commitment to continuing to use AirTags to track, harass, and threaten her, and continues to use AirTags to find Plaintiff’s location,” the lawsuit said. “[She] seeks to bring this action anonymously due to the real risk that being identified would expose her to increased risk of harassment and/or physical harm.”
Earlier this year, Apple began updating the AirTag in an attempt to eliminate unwanted tracking. Apple added new privacy warnings during the setup process, gave recipients of an unwanted tracking alert the ability to locate nearby AirTags, increased the volume of the unwanted tracking alert sound, and more. But that didn’t make the AirTag “stalker proof.”
“While Apple has built safeguards into the AirTag product, they are woefully inadequate, and do little, if anything, to promptly warn individuals if they are being tracked,” the lawsuit adds. At the time of writing, Apple had yet to comment on the lawsuit.
