Because malicious minds are using AirTags to track women, steal cars or rob homes, Apple will update its tracking. Whether on Android or iOS, the presence of an unknown AirTag will be notified to the people being tracked, who will be notified more explicitly.
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Burglary, harassment, assault, theft of cars… L’Air Tag has become a real weapon for some thugs, and Apple Obviously couldn’t sit idly by. In a post published on his websitethe brand explains that it has plans to add more protective measures to its AirTags to minimize the possibility of malicious spirits using it to track a person or steal a vehicle.
” AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track other people or propertywrites Apple in a press release. We have seen reports of people attempting to misuse AirTag for malicious or criminal purposes. We condemn in the strongest terms any malicious use of our products. »
How to find the snitch?
In cooperation with security experts but also legislators, Apple will work to find ways to limit these practices, and in the year, an update will limit its cases. First, Apple is updating its algorithm to inform users more quickly than a tracking junk is placed near them. It also states that iPhone 11, 12, and 13 users will be able to use Precision Finding to see exactly where an unknown AirTag is when in range, something only the AirTag owner could do before. Remember that, in Android, Apple has made available Tracker Detecta application which allows owners of Android smartphones to be alerted to the presence of a cookie made in Apple.
When receiving alerts, Apple also says it will start sending notifications to iPhones at the same time when an unknown AirTag first plays an alert sound. The goal is to compensate for possible choking of the AirTag loudspeaker. Similarly, Apple says it will focus on louder, higher pitched tones in the future.
Apple is not the only manufacturer affected
At the same time, the next update will include a warning message: anyone setting up an AirTag will see a new warning message from confidentiality indicating that the use ofAirTags for unwanted tracking is a misdemeanor. This post will also emphasize that victims will be notified upon detection and that law enforcement may request identifying information about the owner of an AirTag.
” The system of alerts that Apple notified to potential victims of any unwanted tracking made it possible to light a problem that existed long before AirTags hit the marketrecalls Erica Olsen, director of the Safety Net Project at National Network to End Domestic Violence. We are pleased that Apple is engaging in the victim safety debate and continuing to improve safeguards. We hope others will follow their example. » The others are SamsungSony and all other manufacturers of trackers Bluetooth.
After auto theft, AirTag is used to track lonely women…
Despite anti-harassment measures, Apple’s AirTag now appears to be used by some to track young women. A user of Twitter shared her dread after finding out she was being followed as she exited a bar.
Article ofEdward Backpublished on December 22, 2021
Apple’s AirTag has been very controversial since its release. If the device is a very practical tool to avoid losing your wallet or your keys, the firm seems oddly not to have anticipated the misuse. After the car theft, some seem to be using AirTags to track single women.
On December 18, a young woman from Maryland in the United States posted a series of tweets where she says someone put a bug on her car while she was at a bar. As she left the facility at 2 a.m., she received alerts on her iPhone reporting an unknown AirTag following her. Having failed to flush out the intruder, she did not dare to return home. The device was found the next morning in the passage of the front wheel, on the passenger side.
Insufficient protective measures
Since their launch, testimonials of this kind have multiplied. In September, the user @_ashleyscarlett posted a video on TikTok showing an AirTag discovered behind his license plate. In November, a woman in Jonesboro in Arkansas found an AirTag taped to the trunk of his car.
Apple has anti-harassment measures in place to prevent people who are being tracked by an AirTag unknown. However, this only works if you have an iPhone… The snitch doesn’t need the person being tracked to have a smartphone, since he can send his location using any iPhone that passes by. For Android mobile owners, the only way to know if you are being tracked is to install the app Tracker Detect recently published by Apple, then manually check for the presence of snitches in the vicinity…
AirTags, the new weapon of car thieves
In Canada, authorities have noted that several luxury car thefts have been carried out with the help of Apple’s AirTag “snitch”.
Article of Louis Nephewpublished on December 12, 2021
Apple’s AirTags were intended to be a small revolution against loss and anti-theft but, since their release, a bad aura surrounds these small capsules. Futura had already explained that confidentiality and security weren’t AirTags’ forte and that Apple isn’t doing anything to fix it. It is now on the very use of these beacons that there is misappropriation. Instead of helping to find what was lost or stolen, it has become a useful gadget for burglars and the thieves car.
In Canada, York Regional Police have indicated that since September criminals have been concealing AirTags on luxury vehicles they target for theft. The thefts have taken place over the past three months and five cars have been stolen in this way. In these situations, the method was identical: the tracking was placed on the coupling or the hatch used to supply electricity to a trailer. Then, the thief or thieves checked that the owner of the vehicle parked it at his home and outside to come and rob it.
An alert system in case of tracking by an unknown AirTag
The reason criminals use AirTags is because the brand is very popular in North America and the small tags are actually very easy to use with a iPhone. The “Find My” application makes it possible to track AirTags more precisely and quickly, unlike other Bluetooth trackers on the market, with the exception of GPS chips autonomous.
The story does not say how the Canadian police knew that AirTags were used for these flights. In any case, to avoid this kind of disappointment, it is possible to know if an AirTag that does not belong to you is tracking you. In any case, it is a function integrated into iOS 14.5. It displays alerts if necessary. It also works with some Android mobiles.
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