New York Attorney General Issues AirTag Consumer Alert Over Stalking Concerns

[tooloud10]

This isn't a new issue. Tile and other such devices have been around for awhile. The only reason anyone keeps talking about AirTags tracking people is because Apple has been proactive in notifying people when they are being tracked. How many people would have found out if Apple didn't have the notifications in place?

Exactly, it's hilarious how people are up in arms because some people have been alerted that someone was tracking them. None of the other methods of tracking someone will alert the person that's being tracked, so how is Apple the bad guy here?

Basically it seems like some people are upset because Apple told them they're being tracked. Would they rather not know?

 

[tooloud10]

This is such a product in search of a problem that barely exists.

I have personally used an AirTag to track a stolen item worth $2500. The police used the AirTag info to recover my item and now the thief is in jail.

But go on and tell me how useless they are...

 

[deeddawg]

Apple made a HUGE privacy mistake with the invention of their Airtag. The privacy mistake is we can't opt out of being tracked by someone else's AirTag.

FYI this article from May 2021:

How to Opt out of Apple’s “Find My” Network on iPhone, iPad, and Mac​

Be aware though that not participating in the Find My network also means you won't be made aware of any unknown Find My network device that might be moving with you.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Trust me, I *get* the reason why you'd want to be able to lead the police to where your bike is without the thief ever knowing.

Trouble is the feature set for a device allowing you to do that - small, difficult to notice, silent, does not alert anyone to its presence - also happens to make for an ideal device for the ill-intentioned in stalking their prey.

You want to track your bike without the thief knowing you're tracking it. Person with bad intentions wants to track the purse or coat of a woman in a bar/store/hotel without her knowing he's tracking it. Essentially the same use case even though the intentions are completely different.

I understand but if the bad guy wants to track the purse or coat or woman, he/she has the ultimate, completely FREE biological tracker called eyes that no GOV entity could legislate/tax away and no for-profit corporation could get a cut from sales/use. Surveillance has been some people's professions for hundreds (thousands? millions?) of years before there were magical tech trackers from any company. Bad guys have "cased" potential targets since bad guys decided to go bad.

We seem to have this idea that these are tremendously enabling some level of criminal behavior not previously available to criminals. But I think this is like beachside shark bite stories. Big news- sometimes big enough to scare some people out of the water and/or to change vacation plans- but relatively minimal real, tangible application en masse.

It's something somewhat new and has some potential terrible catastrophic use scenarios... which could also be conjured up for pretty much anything else we buy too. On the flip side, for every nefarious use case that can be imagined for something to help us find things, there can probably be 10 or 100 positive benefit use cases that could be offered up. I've already heard more than a few stories from only friends in my modestly sized circle where hooking one of these to their pet helped them find the pet when they were lost. I've seen several stories where lost luggage was located by one of these being tucked inside vs. depending on the airline to decide to put in some extra effort to try to find the bag. Misplaced keys. Misplaced box when moving that needs to be opened first. Etc.

We can- and some of us do- conspiracy theory ANYTHING into anything. In the last few months, I've heard several people I consider otherwise very smart express some concern about the idea that the vaccines are injecting a tracking device into our bodies... often while they are holding a phone associated with themselves and permanently connected to the Internet wherever they are. For one of them, I had helped them "find my phone" recently because they had that turned on to help them find their phone when they replace it.

Stink this up enough to make Apple choose to exit the business and others offering similar tech will fill the void. The genie is out of the bottle. There no legislation/taxation/legal actions going to be able to fully put it back in again.

 

[Tagbert]

Sorry if this is a stupid question: since it warns you that a tag is tracking you, is there a way to see whose it is and have it disabled?

I don't think that you can see it but the police can ask Apple to identify the person who registered the AirTag

 

[evansls]

FYI this article from May 2021:

How to Opt out of Apple’s “Find My” Network on iPhone, iPad, and Mac​

Be aware though that not participating in the Find My network also means you won't be made aware of any unknown Find My network device that might be moving with you.

I want to track my stuff/my devices and my families devices managed under my family cloud network and be pushed permission to be tracked by extended family. This is all user approved tracking. I don't want strangers to be able drop a $20 piece of plastic and track me for 4 hours after I leave the station or a restaurant, or a concert or the office.

Apple gives us tools to give permission and take permission away for our devices, but not AirTags that belong to others.

Lets face it... what this is a security exploit of Apple's "Find My" network.

Apple messed up by not giving users a choice to help or not help track items not on their personal "Find My" network

 

[Tagbert]

Apple made a HUGE privacy mistake with the invention of their Airtag. The privacy mistake is we can't opt out of being tracked by someone else's AirTag.

Each time someone gets a new iPhone, they are asked a series of questions at setup like this:

Do you want to share your analytics with third party? Yes/No.
Do you want to use siri for hands free voice commands? Yes/ No.

What Apple didn't ask is...

Would you like to help the Apple community find their lost items? Yes/No.

Apple does not prompt users with this missing question and therefore now all our devices are accessible beacons to anyone for maliciousness or for good.

However, Apple Airtag would not be successful as it is today to track lost items if people were asked this question. So Apple is putting the responsibility on the third party user to check your pockets, purses, hairnets, bags, cars, etc for these $20 plastic objects. Apple is developing all these tools to make ME responsible not to be tracked when we only want to track our own items. Why would anyone agree to help strangers find their items? Agreeing to help OTHERS find their items requires your location to be broadcasted to them, which is a security exploit. Users can't even opt out of the service, which is at the core of the issue, because everyone is already opted in by owning a mobile Apple device and not informed they're in the tracking location service.

Tech companies use your data against/to benefit you all the time. They may not use this data against you maliciously, but at some point the device asked you a message about providing you with a "better experience" and you accepted not knowing what that actually means. So, now you'll get clever pop-up message that says "it'll take you 45 minutes to get home from this location", and on route to your home that same device will now alert you to a coupon for the restaurant to your right while waiting at the a traffic light.

Apple should require users to accept or decline if they want to help track items that does not belong to the iPhone owner.

I think part of the recent changes is that when your phone notifies you that there is an AirTag, you can elect to disable the tracking.

 

[I7guy]

Apple made a HUGE privacy mistake with the invention of their Airtag. The privacy mistake is we can't opt out of being tracked by someone else's AirTag.

Each time someone gets a new iPhone, they are asked a series of questions at setup like this:

Do you want to share your analytics with third party? Yes/No.
Do you want to use siri for hands free voice commands? Yes/ No.

What Apple didn't ask is...

Would you like to help the Apple community find their lost items? Yes/No.

Apple does not prompt users with this missing question and therefore now all our devices are accessible beacons to anyone for maliciousness or for good.

However, Apple Airtag would not be successful as it is today to track lost items if people were asked this question. So Apple is putting the responsibility on the third party user to check your pockets, purses, hairnets, bags, cars, etc for these $20 plastic objects. Apple is developing all these tools to make ME responsible not to be tracked when we only want to track our own items. Why would anyone agree to help strangers find their items? Agreeing to help OTHERS find their items requires your location to be broadcasted to them, which is a security exploit. Users can't even opt out of the service, which is at the core of the issue, because everyone is already opted in by owning a mobile Apple device and not informed they're in the tracking location service.

Tech companies use your data against/to benefit you all the time. They may not use this data against you maliciously, but at some point the device asked you a message about providing you with a "better experience" and you accepted not knowing what that actually means. So, now you'll get clever pop-up message that says "it'll take you 45 minutes to get home from this location", and on route to your home that same device will now alert you to a coupon for the restaurant to your right while waiting at the a traffic light.

Apple should require users to accept or decline if they want to help track items that does not belong to the iPhone owner.

The real issue is stealth stalking tech exists for not a lot of money, and yet apple is being singled out.

 

[evansls]

I think part of the recent changes is that when your phone notifies you that there is an AirTag, you can elect to disable the tracking.

Only for that one item. Tomorrow, you'll have another attached to you to disable 4 hours later.

Lets face it... what this is a security exploit of Apple's "Find My" network.

Apple messed up by not giving users a choice to help or not help track items not on their personal "Find My" network

 

[MacCheetah3]

Sorry if this is a stupid question: since it warns you that a tag is tracking you, is there a way to see whose it is and have it disabled?

Get information about or disable an AirTag, Find My network accessory, or set of AirPods​

If you have found an unknown AirTag, you can follow these steps to see information about it, or to disable it:

1. If you have found an AirTag, hold the top of your iPhone or NFC-capable smartphone near the white side of the AirTag until a notification appears.
2. Tap the notification. This opens a website that provides information about the AirTag, including its serial number and the last four digits of the phone number of the person who registered it. This can help you identify the owner, if you know them. You might want to take a screenshot to make sure that you can document the information.
3. If the owner marked the AirTag as lost, you might see a message with information about how to contact the owner.

To learn more about a set of AirPods, or Find My network accessory that’s been separated from its owner, scroll to the bottom of the Items tab, then tap Identify Found Item.
If you need to see a list of all AirTag and Find My Network accessories about which you have been notified, launch the Find My app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Tap Items. Scroll to the bottom and tap Items Detected With You. Items that have recently triggered an unwanted tracking alert will be listed. If the option to play a sound isn't available, the item might not be with you anymore, might be near its owner, or if it was with you overnight, its identifier might have changed.

To disable the AirTag, AirPods, or Find My network accessory and stop it from sharing its location, tap Instructions to Disable and follow the onscreen steps. After the AirTag, AirPods, or Find My network accessory is disabled, the owner can no longer get updates on its current location. You will also no longer receive any unwanted tracking alerts for this item.

If you feel your safety is at risk, contact your local law enforcement, who can work with Apple to request information related to the item. You might need to provide the AirTag, AirPods, Find My network accessory, and the device's serial number.
Disabling the Find My network on your device, turning off Bluetooth, or turning off Location Services on your iPhone will not prevent the owner of the AirTag, AirPods, or Find My network accessory from being able to see the location of that AirTag or accessory. You must disable the item by following the instructions above.

---

Check for nearby AirTag or Find My network accessories with an Android device​

If you use an Android device, you can download the Tracker Detect app from the Google Play Store. Tracker Detect looks for item trackers within Bluetooth range that are separated from their owner and that are compatible with Apple's Find My network. These include AirTag and compatible item trackers that use the Find My network. If you think someone is using an AirTag or another item tracker to track your location, you can scan to try to find it. If the app detects an AirTag or compatible item tracker near you for at least 10 minutes, you can play a sound to help find it.
Go to Google Play to download the Tracker Detect app.

What to do if you get an alert that an AirTag, set of AirPods, Find My network accessory, or compatible Bluetooth location-tracking device is with you - Apple Support

AirTag lets you easily track things like your keys, wallet, purse, backpack, luggage, and more. Simply set it up with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and attach it to your item, and your AirTag shows up in the Items tab in the Find My app.

support.apple.com

 

[deeddawg]

I want to track my stuff/my devices and my families devices managed under my family cloud network and be pushed permission to be tracked by extended family. This is all user approved tracking. I don't want strangers to be able drop a $20 piece of plastic and track me for 4 hours after I leave the station or a restaurant, or a concert or the office.

Too late. Here's a $17 piece of plastic that'll you'll never be alerted to the presence of if it's with you.

Tracki GPS Tracker for Vehicles, Car, Kids, Assets. Subscription Needed 4G LTE GPS Tracking Device. Unlimited Distance, US & Worldwide. Small Portable Real time Mini Magnetic

With a Tracki® device, easily track people, cars or assets in real time. Tracki® Worldwide GPS Tracker allows you to monitors location with pinpoint accuracy and track anywhere discreetly while giving you real-time updates. Tracki comes with international sim card included & built in. No need t...

www.amazon.com

Apple gives us tools to give permission and take permission away for our devices, but not AirTags that belong to others.

Lets face it... what this is a security exploit of Apple's "Find My" network.

Apple messed up by not giving users a choice to help or not help track items not on their personal "Find My" network

Way I see it is the FindMy network is a two way street. Want to leverage other people's devices to help in finding your lost items? Then you must allow them to leverage your devices to help in finding their lost items.

Malicious use of AirTags is likely real yet exaggerated. While the press about Apple and Airtags has perhaps shown a light on the whole category of small concealable tracking devices, it's pretty apparent there was an active market for such devices prior to Apple bringing out Airtags.

 

[evansls]

The real issue is stealth stalking tech exists for not a lot of money, and yet apple is being singled out.

It is true GPS tracking has existed way before Apple invented their AirTag or Find My network. It's more accessible to track people with AirTags than AcmeTags. Why? Because Apple makes products that work really well, and Acmetags not so much. Also, AcmeTags don't alert the user they are being tracked.

*AcmeTags is a fictional product used only for example.

 

[evansls]

Too late. Here's a $17 piece of plastic that'll you'll never be alerted to the presence of if it's with you.

Tracki GPS Tracker for Vehicles, Car, Kids, Assets. Subscription Needed 4G LTE GPS Tracking Device. Unlimited Distance, US & Worldwide. Small Portable Real time Mini Magnetic

With a Tracki® device, easily track people, cars or assets in real time. Tracki® Worldwide GPS Tracker allows you to monitors location with pinpoint accuracy and track anywhere discreetly while giving you real-time updates. Tracki comes with international sim card included & built in. No need t...

www.amazon.com

Way I see it is the FindMy network is a two way street. Want to leverage other people's devices to help in finding your lost items? Then you must allow them to leverage your devices to help in finding their lost items.

Malicious use of AirTags is likely real yet exaggerated. While the press about Apple and Airtags has perhaps shown a light on the whole category of small concealable tracking devices, it's pretty apparent there was an active market for such devices prior to Apple bringing out Airtags.

Tracki-Magnetic only has a 5 day battery life, requires GPS. Range is only 5 miles.

Airtags has a 12 month battery life and does not require GPS. Range is Apple network.

You can't compare all these Acme GPS trackers to an AirTag. It's not the same thing.

 

[deeddawg]

Stink this up enough to make Apple choose to exit the business and others offering similar tech will fill the void. The genie is out of the bottle. There no legislation/taxation/legal actions going to be able to fully put it back in again.

I doubt Apple will exit the business. My guess is that Apple will find a balance between alerting and delay such that they can protect themselves from legal action to whatever level they feel they need to do. As I've posted, there are plenty of other trackers which never notify the user.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes, I'm not really imagining Apple exiting this business... more like "much ado about (almost) nothing"

*almost, only because the very few where a tracker is directly responsible for some criminal activity will not think of it is as nothing... just as the unfortunate people actually bitten by sharks at some beach each year certainly don't see that as a statistical nothing.

 

[deeddawg]

Tracki-Magnetic only has a 5 day battery life, requires GPS.

Airtags has a 12 month battery life and does not require GPS.

You can't compare all these Acme GPS trackers to an AirTag. It's not the same thing.

Correct.

The Tracki gives you much longer useful tracking since it gives no alerts, whereas the AirTag supposed to chirp and alert iphone nearby after 8-24 hours.

Now if you want to talk about tracking an android user who doesn't ever find themselves with friends/family/coworkers with iphones... then I'd ask just how the Airtag would be doing any real tracking?

 

[evansls]

Correct. The Tracki gives you several days useful tracking with no alerts, whereas the AirTag will chirp and alert iphone owner after 8-24 hours.

Now if you want to talk about tracking an android user who doesn't ever find themselves with friends/family/coworkers with iphones... then I'd ask just how the Airtag would be doing any tracking?

Tracki-Magnetic only has a 5 mile range. Apple AirTags is infinite with their global Apple "Find My" network.

 

[deeddawg]

Tracki-Magnetic only has a 5 mile range. Apple AirTags is infinite with their global Apple "Find My" network.

Huh? It's an LTE cellular device. Not sure where you came up with a 5 mile range.

 

[evansls]

Huh? It's an LTE cellular device. Not sure where you came up with a 5 mile range.

This review says

I used this device for my vehicle. Noticed right away there was a limit to how far this thing will track. After about 5 miles, the item no longer gives location. This may be good for pets or local (near to home) tracking but not for anything else. Nice size and kit but not what I was expecting.

The point is with this review is.... There is a risk to using any AcmeTag. However, with Apple... they make products that just work, which is why another reason why AirTag is so successful.

 

[erikkfi]

From day one AirTags would sound a tone and alert nearby iphones if it had been travelling with them (and away from their owner) for a certain period of time.

That suggests Apple did think about it and sought a way to address the matter.

Since then they've made enhancements and appear to be interested in continuing to do so.

Doesn’t address the question about not having a smartphone though, does it? Is that now a requirement for safety in our society?

 

[alexandr]

Sounds like New York is looking to sue Apple, they don’t care about victim safety

that would be a first...

 

[deeddawg]

Doesn’t address the question about not having a smartphone though, does it? Is that now a requirement for safety in our society?

If the person doesn't have a smart phone then there won't be much accuracy in tracking them...

... and if you thought you had "safety" before AirTags, you weren't paying attention.

 

[arthurqx]

Did AirTags do anything new? No. But, it's a combination of features that make AirTags more effective and threatening than any competitor:

• Long battery life (vs. GPS cell trackers)
• Easily concealable. Just clip the voice coil to completely silence it—takes two minutes. And, it's small and sleek, so it can be readily hidden. Gotta love Apple design!
• Wide coverage with a pretty available distributed network. Tile has a similar functionality, but its network depends on a user base installing an app. Every time someone buys an iPhone, Apple's network expands...unless they consciously turn off the feature.
• Low entry barrier. No sketchy software to wrangle. No cellular subscription service. You can walk into a store, buy a four-pack, and begin your stalking profession in five minutes.

With that set of features, AirTags are one of the most accessible and effective trackers. Tile comes in close...but I think there are more iPhone users than Tile users...but I may be wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Tagbert]

Only for that one item. Tomorrow, you'll have another attached to you to disable 4 hours later.

Lets face it... what this is a security exploit of Apple's "Find My" network.

Apple messed up by not giving users a choice to help or not help track items not on their personal "Find My" network

Then you would be a major target of tracking and have a different problem.

 

[turbineseaplane]

To be clear folks, you have no way to know you're being tracked by these unless you have a smartphone to tell you about it.

As @erikkfi pointed out -- is simply being safe in our society now making smartphones a requirement?

(that has implications for those of you who don't see the Apple App Store and Google duopoly issues btw...)