AirTags Separated From Owners for Three Days or More Play Audible Sound When Moved

[jhollington]

So it's not good for stalking your partner if he/she got an iPhone, but if they don't you can track them for 2-3 days (as long as they're around people with iPhones that report their location)((And as long as their lover doesn't have an iPhone.))

Unless they're part of your Family Sharing group and you can get into their iPhone to indefinitely disable the alert

Then again, if you can do that, you can probably just make sure that Find My iPhone is enabled. That's how I dealt with my ex-wife when she was having her affair, but then again she wasn't particularly tech-savvy, considering I first found out about the affair from emails that were being exchanged from her normal account on a mail server that I personally owned and managed.

 

[alexandr]

Exactley. I want to know how long it works and can I disable the sound

someone here is saying that you can just temporarily disable the tag altogether.

 

[jhollington]

someone here is saying that you can just temporarily disable the tag altogether.

There's no evidence of that, and personally I highly doubt it. This is an anti-stalking feature, so allowing AirTag owners to disable the sound would defeat the purpose, since every stalker would just do exactly that before planting AirTags on their intended victims.

 

[alexandr]

There's no evidence of that, and personally I highly doubt it. This is an anti-stalking feature, so allowing AirTag owners to disable the sound would defeat the purpose, since every stalker would just do exactly that before planting AirTags on their intended victims.

yea, i think(and i mean think — not know) you're getting too deep into espionage.

 

[jhollington]

yea, i think(and i mean think — not know) you're getting too deep into espionage.

Haha, getting too deep into espionage would be opening up an AirTag and disabling the sound-emitting hardware inside

The feature is about protecting users from potentially violent stalkers, however. It's pretty strongly implied in Apple's support article, including a note to contact law enforcement if a person fears for their safety after finding an unknown AirTag (and I'll bet money that Apple can tie an AirTag back to its original owner if it gets a formal request from a law enforcement agency).

 

[alexandr]

Haha, getting too deep into espionage would be opening up an AirTag and disabling the sound-emitting hardware inside

The feature is about protecting users from potentially violent stalkers, however. It's pretty strongly implied in Apple's support article, including a note to contact law enforcement if a person fears for their safety after finding an unknown AirTag (and I'll bet money that Apple can tie an AirTag back to its original owner if it gets a formal request from a law enforcement agency).

there you go — now pull that mask off — you might be tim )

 

[MacD]

Perhaps Apple has put more thought into all this than we give them credit for. The more I think about all these situations, they start to make more sense.

Purse/Bag/Keys/Personal Item Tracking:

If you are on public transit or in Uber or whatever, and the purse/bag remains near you, other people will not be notified since it is within range of the owner.

If you drop your keys behind a seat in an Uber vehicle without knowing and leave the vehicle, at some point the Uber driver, if they have an iPhone, will be notified they are being tracked. This will cause them to look in their vehicle for the tag (heck, maybe they will know before the owner knows they lost their keys?), and hopefully through that result, the owner of the keys can reunite with the Uber driver to have a happy ending. The Uber driver could also just toss them out in a park, and let the owner track them down that way on their own. Either way, end result is, owner gets his keys back.

If someone steals the purse or bag, yes they could dispose of of the tracker. You might find your tag, but you won't get your bag back. The most probably situation is that any items of value in the bag, likely will be take and the bag will be disposed of anyhow. Granted a thief could get notified they are being tracked and then they could panic and just put the bag down and run off, which would be a better situation potentially for getting your items back.


Car Tracking:

If you put one in your car and you are the only driver of your car, then no one will notified they are being tracked, since you are there, and they are riding along with you. If someone in your family group drives the car, they will get notified, unless they turn off notifications for family owned tags.

You will think twice about tracking your teen or spouse with one of these, without telling them there is a tag in the vehicle. While we can debate both sides of various situations, this is the most "healthy" method of tagging a car with different drivers.

If someone steals your car, if they have an iPhone, they will get notified they are being tracked. They could dig around and try to find it (if you stuck it somewhere easily found) but they may panic and then just ditch the car since they don't know if you are hot on their tail or clueless in Seattle. That likely is a better scenario than them not being notified at all. But if they don't have an iPhone, then eventually you may get your car back if it doesn't land in the chop shop.


Young Child Tracking:

If you are wanting to track your child and your child is going with someone else not in the family group, then you just need to communicate with the adult taking the child, that they have a tracker. Any adult would think this is fair and if they get notified they are being tracked, they will understand why. No big deal. If the kids is just at daycare and staying in one area, then it likely won't flag those around them with iPhones that they are being tracked (my guess).

If someone kidnaps your child you have a different situation on your hands. This might be one of the few instances you would want there to be no notification to anyone, but also finding the tracker on the child would be a pretty simple task, unless it is like hidden inside the sole of a shoe. But again, Apple is not marketing this as a method to track your young children.


3-Day Beeping on Moving:

This is to provide notification for people who are being tracked, who are not using iPhones. If you put it in a car and the driver is using Android, they will never know it is there. But after 3-days, assuming the owner of the Airtag hasn't been near that vehicle. it will make a noise causing the driver to investigate.

Just my thoughts on it all, I'm sure I have not even thought about all situations.

 

[simon3163]

Many people missing the point.

if I drop an AirTag in my mates bag. (For whatever reason) then when I leave him and he starts moving.. HE will get an alert to tell him there is an AirTag near him, that’s moving with him - tracking HIM. Not 3 days but straight away. That’s the safety feature against stalkers - this is a ‘lost’ tracker not ‘stolen’ tracker..

The add clearly shows items lost.
No add showing anyone working as FBI

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

Yeah you’re not supposed to track the wife. That’s why it’s not an option.

Let me type it again since you just jumped on the ONE example presented: There are enough legitimate reasons in which an equipment may be moved by someone other than the owner.

And, no, you're not gonna use Apple Family with your flatmates, in the boarding school, etc.

 

[kappaknight]

Mmmm. I’m interested in tagging my dog after a recent incident. While I don’t expect to lose her for 3 days, I also don’t want it to buzz if I’m traveling for work for more than 3 days. Hopefully there’s a setting that can adjust this based on what is tagged.

 

[parseckadet]

Everyone is WAY too focused on this being an anti-theft device. If you look at all of Apple's phrasing around this product you'll notice they don't mention theft at all. They steer well clear of it in fact. For anyone who listens to the Connected podcast you may have heard Federico Viticci tell a story of when he was traveling to WWDC and almost had his suitcase "stolen." Essentially, someone else at the airport had the exact same suitcase as his. So when they went to baggage claim they took his by accident and wandered off with it. Luckily, one of Federico's friends just happened to get in the same elevator with this guy, recognized that he had Federico's suitcase, and said something. The guy went back to baggage claim, where Federico saw him, and they exchanged suitcases. A happy ending, but only due to insanely good luck.

So now let's change this scenario where Federico isn't so lucky and the guy gets into an Uber with Federico's suitcase, but Federico has an AirTag on it. According to https://www.apple.com/airtag/

If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there.

So in the example above, if this person got into an Uber with Federico's suitcase, and he also has an iPhone, he will then get a notice that he has someone else's stuff. Since we're talking about someone who made an honest mistake here, he'll begin looking for this item, realize his mistake, and tell the Uber driver to go back to the airport. From there this person will do what he can to reunite Federico and his bag; either by calling Federico or by giving the bag to the airline. Happy ending again, but this time less luck required.

The reason Apple doesn't want to pitch this as an anti-theft device is because of the unwanted tracking prevention. All the features everyone keeps bringing up related to anti-theft could also be used for stalking someone. Apple very clearly wants to prevent that circumstance. For all those saying they won't buy AirTags because it can't be used for anti-theft/theft-recovery, I guarantee Apple has anticipated that and made the calculation that they would rather not have your $30 if it prevents a story in the news of someone using an Apple product to stalk and harm someone else. I personally think Apple has made the right choice.

 

[cobioguy]

We definitely need to better understand this feature: if I hide an AirTag inside my car and then I'm flying somewhere for a week, I don't want it to play any sound

Well it’s if it’s moved and you are not around so... unless you expect your car to move while you are gone without you it shouldn’t be an issue

 

[michael31986]

Guess we will see what happens when it gets released. We don’t know how all this works. I’d it can be disabled and enabled again than could still be used.
Or
Like someone said maybe family sharing.

 

[michael31986]

Well it’s if it’s moved and you are not around so... unless you expect your car to move while you are gone without you it shouldn’t be an issue

Family car would be moved.

 

[parseckadet]

Family car would be moved.

I don't understand this fixation on tracking cars.

1. Apple does not market this as a car tracker.
2. There are already other, better products on the market for tracking cars.

If you really want to track a car LoJack is available to you. If you want to track a car, but don't want to spend more than $30 then you really need to examine your priorities.

 

[jhollington]

I don't understand this fixation on tracking cars.

Agreed. People also seem to be forgetting that this is useless unless there's an iPhone or other Apple device nearby.

• If you want to track where your family members are going, turn on Find My Friends. If they don't have iPhones, you won't realistically be able to track them with an AirTag anyway.
• If you want to remember where you left your car in a parking lot, Apple Maps already does that for you as long as you were connected to Bluetooth or CarPlay.

For those concerned about potential car theft, however, it's just not going to work the way most people think. Unless the thief has an iPhone, you're not going to be able to watch your car speeding away in real-time, and any professional car thief is just going to add dealing with AirTags to the long list of other anti-tracking measures that they already employ.

 

[1258186]

Because you might be too far away from that location such that you cannot easily get there to get it.

If you’re too far away to come and get it how am I supposed to return the item to you. I would be too far away as well.

 

[michael31986]

I don't understand this fixation on tracking cars.

1. Apple does not market this as a car tracker.
2. There are already other, better products on the market for tracking cars.

If you really want to track a car LoJack is available to you. If you want to track a car, but don't want to spend more than $30 then you really need to examine your priorities.

Yes I understand. But this could have been a somewhat efficient and cheaper way.
LoJack is expensive.

also I have seen multiple people want to use it for dog tags. I think that’s. Great idea.

We won’t know until we actually get someone to play around with it.

 

[Arty Tales]

For those concerned about potential car theft, however, it's just not going to work the way most people think. Unless the thief has an iPhone, you're not going to be able to watch your car speeding away in real-time, and any professional car thief is just going to add dealing with AirTags to the long list of other anti-tracking measures that they already employ.

There are 100s of millions of active iPhones and other Apple devices (the thief himself has a 50/50 change of having one). You probably would not be able to watch your car speeding down the highway, but there is a good chance you could see where the car has been parked or is about to be broken up for parts.

I 100% agree that this isn't Apple's intended use case, but it is probably a lot more useful than what Apple is trying to sell AirTags for. Unfortunately many petty criminals end up moving to more violent crime, so anything that could help tackle stealing bikes/cars/other valuable would be helpful to society as a whole (especially if thieves start being paranoid and law enforcement cooperates).

 

[manu chao]

If you’re too far away to come and get it how am I supposed to return the item to you. I would be too far away as well.

There are such things as companies that transport stuff from one location to another for you for a fee.

 

[manu chao]

Young Child Tracking:

If you are wanting to track your child and your child is going with someone else not in the family group, then you just need to communicate with the adult taking the child, that they have a tracker. Any adult would think this is fair and if they get notified they are being tracked, they will understand why. No big deal. If the kids is just at daycare and staying in one area, then it likely won't flag those around them with iPhones that they are being tracked (my guess).

I think there needs to be some latitude in regard to how long a phone and tracker have to move together, how close they have to be together and what kind of movement is occurring. Take a bunch of kids on a school trip together in a bus. I don't think they should all (well, all those with iPhones) get a tracking notification after 30 min or 1 hour (if there is one child with an AirTag on the bus). Same when a child is travelling for a short distance with another family and then is playing outside their home. While still possibly physically close to the iPhone of the adults in that family, the movement patterns of the tracker and the adults' iPhones would be quite different even if for some period they might be the same (car ride).

 

[polyphenol]

Maybe where I live is quiet and peaceable?

My intended uses would be:
If I leave something behind - e.g. a bag in a cafe - I'd know where to go back or call;
If my luggage is checked in separately, such as hold baggage, that it is on the same aircraft! And has been unloaded and just about to arrive in baggage retrieval. Or not;
Slapped on my surfboard in case it gets separated from me. (Yes, would need a waterproof housing.)

Any half-way informed criminal will obviously know about tags (these and others), and look for them. Crunched under heel or thrown in a bin if found. So they might just help for the first few minutes - as something is picked up and taken but before the taker has had a chance to search.

 

[andtrobs]

What would happen if I was on a camping trip for a week. After around a day my phone battery runs out and I have no way to charge it. If I have an airtag on my keys or a bag with me will it start making the anti stalking sound 3 days later?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I have a feeling "privacy" of thieves is a more important "human right" to Apple than your property rights. :/

Privacy rights of thieves is also the privacy rights of stalking victims in this case. You belonging doesn’t get any more easily stolen with or without it.

 

[mw360]

What would happen if I was on a camping trip for a week. After around a day my phone battery runs out and I have no way to charge it. If I have an airtag on my keys or a bag with me will it start making the anti stalking sound 3 days later?

Probably. So take the battery out.