Back in February I wrote about a nasty new trend of hiding Apple’s AirTags to covertly track targets for various illicit and possibly harmful pursuits. At the time, the media had a handful of reports of the small tracking devices being used to locate and steal cars, and 2 high-profile instances of alleged stalking but it seems to have been enough negative attention to get Apple to address this unintended use case. Since the reporting in Februrary, Apple has made some changes to the technology that will make unwanted or hidden devices easier to find, which appears to be working more or less, as police report filings seem to be demonstrating.
What this means for you
From reports acquired from eight police departments, Vice Magazine identified 150 reported incidents involving AirTags, and 50 of them were from women who detected and/or found unknown AirTags being used to track their location. Using GPS devices and software to track people covertly isn’t new, but the widely available, cheap ($29) and easy-to-use AirTag has delivered a stalking tool of nightmarish proportions. On top of this, if you don’t own an iPhone and aren’t aware of the Android app (Apple’s app and the open source one I recommended on my previous post) that can detect unwanted AirTags or aren’t even aware that such a technology exists, it’s quite possible there are plenty more people who are being stalked and just don’t know about it. Just doing back-of-the-napkin math based on an average of six reports per police department, with approximately 18,000 police departments in the US, we’re looking at potentially over 100,000 potential victims, just in the US. Unfortunately for everyone, this technology cat is well out of the bag – estimates have as many as 25M of the devices sold since launch, and even if Apple was to stop producing this device, a dozen cheap copy-cat devices will step right into the void, with or without Apple or Google’s permission. Even more disheartening was the reported knowledge gap many victims encountered from local law enforcement when reporting the digital stalking. It’s not even universally clear whether using AirTags to stalk someone is a crime, nor would it be practical for law enforcement alone to police this problem. We have yet another technology pickle on our hands where perhaps profit got ahead of thoughtful and ethical implementation.
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
If there is one thing that is certain, if there is a useful technology invented that is supposed to benefit us, there is a corresponding negative usage that can and will be exploited. After the initial dopamine rush had worn off around Apple’s AirTags, people started waking up to the negative implications of a small, easy-to-conceal, wireless tracking device that utilizes one of the largest global networks in the world. Apple’s “Find My…” network is too useful to not be exploited, and the less ethical are already doing so.
What this means for you
Apple’s AirTags were initially created to track items that could be easily lost or stolen and ostensibly were made inconspicuous so that they weren’t unsightly and so thieves couldn’t easily find and discard the trackers. Once reports started flowing in of the “less orthodox” usage of AirTags, Apple immediately tried to get out in front of the problem by letting everyone know that AirTags themselves have unique, embedded serial numbers and their usage is tied to an Apple account – information they will surrender to law enforcement in a criminal investigation. But they glossed over something that more inventive hackers latched onto – what’s to stop someone from creating a “cloned” AirTag that simply bypasses Apple’s security measures? At the moment, nothing. Someone has already done so, and you can assume that Pandora’s box is not going to be closed any time soon without significant intervention from Apple.
Until that happens, you should get caught up on Apple’s lengthy advice on detecting and finding unwanted trackers. The article goes into great detail for Apple device users, so if you are an iPhone user, finding an unwanted Apple-made AirTag should be pretty straightforward (if not a wee bit unsettling). For the rest of us using Android devices, Apple has released an app called Tracker Detect (watch out for copy-cat apps!) that has to be activated manually. Not nearly as useful as its iOS counterpart, but at least they tried. If you’d like something a bit more robust and not funded by Apple, you can try AirGuard which was developed by a research team out of German university TU Darmstadt. I’ve tried both apps and while they appear to do no harm (other than possibly drain my battery faster), I can’t really verify that they work, as I apparently don’t have any unwanted trackers near me. Yay? Either way, if you suspect you are being digitally stalked, make sure you share your suspicions with your loved ones and authorities and get familiar with this site and its resources immediately!
Image by Thomas Wolter from Pixabay