New York Attorney General Issues AirTag Consumer Alert Over Stalking Concerns

[deeddawg]

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.

Sounds like a clueless user, as an LTE device wouldn't be range limited (except a very rural area without LTE coverage).

Though I'm open to your explanation of how an cellular device would have a five mile range.

Don't try to explain it with direct to phone RF transmission though, unless you can be extremely detailed as the the specific frequencies which could have an antenna that'd fit in the package and have that sort of propagation without line of sight.

 

[LeadingHeat]

This is just getting ridiculous.

 

[deeddawg]

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...)

Given the wide availability of GPS/cellular trackers which don't provide any notification whatsoever, seems a smartphone or no smartphone is kinda irrelevant.

Plus as I asked above - if you don't have a smartphone, how would an AirTag provide any notable accuracy as to its location? There'd be a general path as you drove past other people's phones, but that'd be their locations and the stalker would just know the approximate area.

 

[Deliro]

This is nothing more than an attack on Apple. There have been trackers for years and you can buy an inexpensive gps tracker on eBay.

I wonder what Apples combined legal salary a year is.

 

[Tagbert]

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...)

That is why they are designed to beep as a fallback notification method.

As a last resort, police can get the identify of the person who registered the AirTag. this is not really a free-for-all.

 

[MTShipp]

Move along now. Nothing to see here.

 

[siddavis]

Responses on here are the classic attack the thing and not the nefarious user. How about if Letitia James applied some pretty stiff penalties for those caught using devices to stalk (ala armed robbery vs robbery) to punish and deter? That way the rest of us can have nice things.

 

[erikkfi]

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.

You mean if the person doesn’t have a smart phone and never comes within Bluetooth range of another person who does.

 

[burgman]

So how many out of the hundred thousands or millions of AirTags sold have been used for criminal activity

Since there is a growing market for modified AirTags with speakers disabled more than a few. In your, and others, dismissing this as long as it doesn't happen to youths ok?

 

[burgman]

Move along now. Nothing to see here.

Sure, as long as you drive a crappy car, live in a crappy house, and aren't female.

 

[deeddawg]

You mean if the person doesn’t have a smart phone and never comes within Bluetooth range of another person who does.

... any tracking then would be to show a general location - of the other phones.

That individual would also have to not spend any time and never go anywhere with friends/family/coworkers with smartphones.

And this individual would be a stalking target exactly why?

BTW, which smart phone models detect any of the myriad GPS/cellular trackers referenced previously?

 

[deeddawg]

Sure, as long as you drive a crappy car, live in a crappy house, and aren't female.

Point was (supposition) that it seems disingenuous to focus on the one device that *does* alert people they're being tracked when there were already - and continue to be - many inexpensive GPS / cellular trackers that nobody gets any notification about.

Amazon has an entire category of GPS Trackers that anyone can buy, anyone can use, and those being tracked would likely never know about. T-Mobile and Verizon sell small GPS / cellular trackers. Samsung sells their SmartTags which similarly utilize Samsung phones a la Apple's Find My Network but (AFAIK) no iPhone user would detect and a Samsung user needs to specifically look for via app.

Good on Apple for (a) having anti-stalking features day-one when Airtags were originally released, and (b) continuing to refine/enhance those anti-stalking features going forward.

 

[erikkfi]

... any tracking then would be to show a general location - of the other phones.

That individual would also have to not spend any time and never go anywhere with friends/family/coworkers with smartphones.

And this individual would be a stalking target exactly why?

BTW, which smart phone models detect any of the myriad GPS/cellular trackers referenced previously?

“Hey, why would anyone want to stalk someone who doesn’t have a smartphone? And anyway it’ll only show their approximate location!”

You’re making a very scary argument that is only deepening my sense that AirTags have one foot in dystopia. If you support this technology for real, the best thing you (in particular) can do for it is to stop defending it.

 

[hydropsyche]

The bluetooth mesh network, created for Find My iphone and airtags, is the greatest threat to privacy in the past 30 years! Don't think the NSA and your local cops won't be asking Apple for access to your entire travel history if they want. Via the bluetooth mesh network, Apple can turn on your phone, turn on audio, and turn on video even if the phone is turned off and collected data saved until the phone hits the internet again and the date uploaded. The mesh network is an encrypted black box, no one knows the truth about what commands can be given past what I have stated above.

 

[tranceme]

Let's be honest. I love visiting New York. But, I feel sorry for dumb leadership in that state. Those people deserve better.

Point was (supposition) that it seems disingenuous to focus on the one device that *does* alert people they're being tracked when there were already - and continue to be - many inexpensive GPS / cellular trackers that nobody gets any notification about.

Amazon has an entire category of GPS Trackers that anyone can buy, anyone can use, and those being tracked would likely never know about. T-Mobile and Verizon sell small GPS / cellular trackers. Samsung sells their SmartTags which similarly utilize Samsung phones a la Apple's Find My Network but (AFAIK) no iPhone user would detect and a Samsung user needs to specifically look for via app.

Good on Apple for (a) having anti-stalking features day-one when Airtags were originally released, and (b) continuing to refine/enhance those anti-stalking features going forward.

Stop making sense. People might listen.

 

[amartinez1660]

AirTags with disabled speakers (so they can’t beep) are easy to buy.
These things should all be recalled and the service dismantled.

I don’t fully grasp the reach of what you suggest.
Are you meaning “by service”:

• All sorts of GPS tracking services? (So dismantle Google maps, Apple Maps, car GPS’s, etc etc)?
• Dismantle all location related services and technology (that granted, could also be used for wrongdoing) like FindMy iphone, iPad, MacBook, etc?
• Or only AirTags in this case because it alerts of potential wrongdoing happening? Tile and Co also? Or is it only AirTags?

Do you think it is sensible to think like that? Example, a car can be used to go to a bank and execute a money heist, escape with millions. Should we dismantle all the car manufacturing and forfeit all the benefits brought by motoring transportation? let’s go back to bicycles up until the very first money heist with bicycles happens?

Or even let’s go further back, money can be used to buy illegal guns, drugs and said car to be used in the hypothetical bank robbery, should we dismantle all sorts of “value transferring services”?

Or even a whole lot further back, should we forfeit fire? I mean it can be used to cook, craft, create, heat, etc but it’s also used wrongly and destructively, let’s get rid of it?

 

[Scott Baret]

Pennsylvania's AG also came out with a statement about these today.

There needs to be more awareness of the features built into the iPhone (and an available app for Android) where an unauthorized device can be detected. I believe the feature is turned on by default, but there does need to be an increased awareness of it.

 

[iGeneo]

I do like this suggestion from Cult of Mac:

Here’s where change is needed: There needs to be limits on how often you can use Lost Mode. It should only be accessible a few times a day, or a few days a week, and not very many times a month.


Keep in mind, the whole purpose of AirTag is to help you find your keys, purse or whatever else you lost. For that, you don’t need to track your purse all day, every day.

Such limits won’t inconvenience regular users. If you lose your keys somewhere new every single day, there’s not much anyone can do to help you. But the changes should make AirTag much less useful to stalkers and other criminals.

 

[I7guy]

AirTags with disabled speakers (so they can’t beep) are easy to buy.
These things should all be recalled and the service dismantled.

Shockingly shortsighted. I can see this negative attention exploding the category for non-apple trackers. The ones one would have no idea were actually implanted on their person.

 

[deeddawg]

“Hey, why would anyone want to stalk someone who doesn’t have a smartphone? And anyway it’ll only show their approximate location!”

You’re making a very scary argument that is only deepening my sense that AirTags have one foot in dystopia. If you support this technology for real, the best thing you (in particular) can do for it is to stop defending it.

You're grasping at an unlikely/rare scenario as your basis for "society is unsafe" assertion regarding AirTags.

It is odd that you're so focused on AirTags - the one device which actually alerts people they're being tracked - when an Amazon search for "GPS cellular tracker" gives over 3000 results for devices which will never alert anyone that they're being tracked.

Maybe your focus should be on the myriad devices that don't give any indication to the person being tracked rather than the one which does?

 

[ViDeOmAnCiNi]

OMG.. another political doofus jumping on the bandwagon after the problem has been solved. Why aren't they jumping on Tile and other remote trackers that existed way before Apple decided to throw their hat into the ring? Much too late NYAG. Go back to persecuting the homeless.

 

[8CoreWhore]

But Amazon sells actually GPS stalking devices that do not warn the victim, and no one says squat.

 

[a_f]

So how many out of the hundred thousands or millions of AirTags sold have been used for criminal activity?

Political stunt. This AG doesn't care one bit about the average New Yorker.

 

[a_f]

Seems like a well written consumer alert. Since they are now in use, it’s more oriented towards educational awareness of AirTags.

It is well-written political posturing.

 

[a_f]

You want to recall the only tracker that alerts people they're being tracked, while doing nothing about all the other trackers which never alert anyone?

Sounds kinda bass ackward to me...

Yes, and now that we are at it, we should put a huge foam pad on all baseball bats since 0.00000001 % of them are used for violent crimes every year. Good idea for kitchen knives too! Can't be too careful when legislating for the exception and not the rule.