AirTag Used to Successfully Track a Mailed Package Across the UK

[thekeyring]

I could imagine a circumstance where a youtuber (or other semi-private person) let's fans send letters and packages to a PO Box (not their home address, to keep it secret) and unknowingly gets sent an AirTag.

Rather easy to do and hide, and suddenly that person has a stalker who knows where they live.

Isn't this already the case though, with other devices? (eg. an old Apple Watch or smartphone that someone discarded). Or is the point that AirTags are much easier to hide within an item?

 

[SDJim]

I could imagine a circumstance where a youtuber (or other semi-private person) let's fans send letters and packages to a PO Box (not their home address, to keep it secret) and unknowingly gets sent an AirTag.

Rather easy to do and hide, and suddenly that person has a stalker who knows where they live.

While that is a great point, this has been possible for decades. It is arguably now cheaper than ever ($29), but viewable GPS tags that can be tracked from a separate device are far from new.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

While that is a great point, this has been possible for decades. It is arguably now cheaper than ever ($29), but viewable GPS tags that can be tracked from a separate device are far from new.

I do believe there are far more capable trackers than the AirTag, both smaller and cheaper. I don’t frequent those corners of the internet, but a friend says…

 

[Doc.Tauri]

The real issue would be the iphone carrying delivery driver getting a notification that air tags are following him and he disables them!

Wonder what having several airtag tracked packages in his truck does to his iPhones battery life.

 

[pubb]

Stupid question: if I work as a luggage handler at an airport, or in a mail sorting/delivery role, how much of my data is spent updating people about their AirTags?

And if its costing them data, they turn it off, which makes it less usable.

 

[daved2424]

Except in this case, an iPhone user would likely be alerted to the presence of the AirTag, because they would be moving with it from the PO Box back to their home.

Now, whether they would get the alert in time to avoid divulging their home address is another matter entirely, but it's almost guaranteed that they would get one.

Further, if the package takes more than three days to arrive, the AirTag should start beeping as soon as it's picked up. The catch, however, is that if it's buried inside a package the person may not hear it, and it doesn't seem to keep beeping.

If the person receiving the AirTag is not an iPhone user, they wouldn't get any alerts, but they also might be harder to track. If they live in a detached home without any Apple devices, you might get their neighbourhood from other nearby iPhones, but you wouldn't get their exact home address.

Good job these certainties and guarantees might exist then. And good job everyone in the world has an iPhone to alert them to being tracked.

 

[daved2424]

So you think AirTag is the first remote tracking device that could be used in this manner?

Yes, because of the ubiquity of iPhones. Other trackers would be much more cumbersome and a more niche product.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Yes, because of the ubiquity of iPhones. Other trackers would be much more cumbersome and a more niche product.

It’s nowhere NEAR the first device. I didn’t even have to go to the dark web (unless you count WalMart as the dark web) to find it. This one doesn’t look too cumbersome and it’s GPS enabled, so it can provide continuous tracking and not just “when there’s an iPhone around”. AND quite affordable. So, no, AirTags is not even close to being the first device that allows this.

 

[daved2424]

It’s nowhere NEAR the first device. I didn’t even have to go to the dark web (unless you count WalMart as the dark web) to find it. This one doesn’t look too cumbersome and it’s GPS enabled, so it can provide continuous tracking and not just “when there’s an iPhone around”. AND quite affordable. So, no, AirTags is not even close to being the first device that allows this.

You seem to be refuting points I did not make. You said first twice. I said first zero times

Cumbersome as in not baked right into iOS, not as in it is shaped like a tractor.

My point, seeing as you missed it, is it’s easier now, but not impossible before.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

You seem to be refuting points I did not make. You said first twice. I said first zero times

Tonewheel: So you think AirTag is the first remote tracking device that could be used in this manner?
daved2424: Yes, because of the ubiquity of iPhones. - however, I believe it now appears that you meant to say No? or Maybe?

But, no, you absolutely never said “first”