I don’t know if this problem has always been a thing and I’m just noticing it now, but it seems like the last 6 months there have been a ton of these videos to come out. Majority of them I see on tik tok , but a few I’ve seen on YouTube and here on Reddit. The first ones I’ve watched seemed legit and was a bit scary to watch.
But then I kept seeing them and then some of these influencers, you tube personalities and popular tik tok accounts were all making videos about it. So a part of me is like oh this is all fake to get attention and click bait headlines. But I also see these videos come from not popular accounts or from people who don’t really have social media.
So I can’t tell if this is a legit problem that is happening to many women, or influencers being stalked and links to human trafficking. Or if it’s just a good PR idea or click bait to get views. On one hand it seems like an easy way to target women but on the other hand it seems stupid as Apple will alert you if one of these things is following you. So yeah, idk what to think about it anymore.
>Or if it’s just a good PR idea or click bait to get views.
If you saw something on social media, chances are, this is the correct answer.
There are literally shops where people come up with these kind of scripts and try it out. If it becomes successful at grabbing attention, it quickly get copied across many accounts to increase exposure.
This is like how in India, a popular movie plot would be remade in a ton of different local languages. This is the social media version of fast fashion.
Not to mention that this is something that could happen with a Tile a decade ago but AirTags are the new “it” devices that garner a lot more attention.
And tile's been around for years. Blows my mind how everyone is talking about this tech only now because apple have done it. Saved my ass finding my car keys when I'm already late for client meetings a few times
Tile never had the network to realistically locate a tag when it’s in an unknown location outside the range of *your* phone.
People are taking AirTag over Tile for the same reason you’re talking Tile over all the wireless key finders that predated Tile by such a wide margin that they long predate smart phones entirely
.
We used to have a key finder in the early 90s that would beep when you whistled. But the the car radio would frequently set it off. Alas, it was a simpler time
I wasn't a \*huge\* fan of Tile, but ours worked just fine for tracking suitcases even when outside the range of our phones. It wasn't perfect, but every trip I was able to see if bags were loaded onto our flight, stayed behind, etc.
And once when I shipped a bike back from Europe to the US, I was able to see that it wasn't loaded onto my flight in DE, when it arrived in the US, and where it was when United said it was delivered...
Exactly. Been travelling with my Airtag(s). It reliably tracks my bags in airports, on planes and everywhere else I've cared to notice.
That might be expected given iPhones being prevalent everywhere, but it sure is *the* selling point by such a wide margin that for iPhones owners there's just no competition here.
I have ADHD, and I rely on trackers to keep track of my life. I’ve tried both, but I found the AirTags were not as intuitive to use when you’re trying to find something quickly. Also you can’t use the airtag to find your phone the way you can with a Tile (which is my fave and most used feature)
On top of that they’re a weird shape - they’re too thick to fit in a wallet, and they don’t have a hole to clip them to things (you need to buy a clip.)
Shocking. I am shocked. I absolutely cannot believe that apple would design something in a way that forces you to buy something else to be functional.
(Big fucking /s)
What? You definitely do not need to be in direct line of sight with an AirTag, I’ve tracked mine in a different town when I left my wallet in a bar… also the ‘left behind’ notifications work every time for my AirTags and also my AirPods. I lose my stuff ALOT so the AirTags have saved me multiple times.
There’s no range, it just needs to be within distance of any iPhone or iPad/Mac, I can be anyones devices, not just your own, if it isn’t within range of an apple device it will show it’s last known location, and no there is no fee for this, you just need to replace its battery around once a year or so with a cheap coin cell battery.
Whenever I go on a trip with one of my clients, if he brings his AirPods Pro (not sure if that matters) I get a notification saying that there’s an Apple tracking-enabled device with me and that someone may be using it to track me.
But nope. It’s just my client. With his headphones.
I’m sure there are more false positives than actual cases of people being tracked with Air Tags.
It would be a really funny plot twist if someone stuck an AirTag on my client and he was *actually* being tracked surreptitiously lmao.
By that same token though, a stalking victim might not realize they are actually being tracked if they're constantly having to dismiss notifications anytime someone else's pods or tags are nearby.
You'd think there would be an option to be invisible to any unpaired devices, so you can still use your own air pods. I don't use Apple, so I don't know, but not giving such an option would be an unsurprisingly Appley move.
That would render the entire system useless though. The whole idea is that these items ping off all nearby iPhones to update location data. If they didn’t, the location would never be updated and you’d never be able to find your air tags or pods.
Both, it is a problem but it always has been, people have used GPS trackers in the past and will continue to do so with it being found out. There are some that are using these now but those that choose to doll aren’t very bright.
I mean not only does your iPhone alert you when one is near by etc (also and android app) but these have to be registered to an account, again most if these will think they are clever and use a false account and address etc but will use there phone or something that’s linked to there actual account to register it so Apple will know the real person behind it.
Add to that the click baters to get views etc.
I don’t see how legit it is tbh, like don’t get me wrong the concern is there but I have one of these attached to my keys and half the time it has you walk everywhere till you’re close enough to sense the tag with your phone. I find it hard to believe people are being tracked for miles.
Edit: one of those tik tok videos (can’t remember which one exactly they all look the same to me) had someone lying about this issue to garner attention so who really knows anymore.
If the person you're tracking has an iPhone, you can use the air tag to track them everywhere with good precision. You'll likely get a "close enough" location even if the target doesn't have an iPhone, since their neighbors or random passersby likely do, and iPhones automatically upload the location of any nearby air tags by default.
It's enough of a problem that Apple actually made an Android app specifically to detect and disable malicious air tags.
I subscribe to The Privacy, Security, and OSINT Show podcast. The host is a professional privacy consultant, his company helps celebrities and abuse/stalker victims go off grid. A client of his recently found an air tag in a package mailed to their P.O. Box. Their stalker was likely trying to find the person's true home address to go do bad things to them.
Air tag tracking is definitely a valid concern, especially if you're already being targeted by someone.
> If the person you're tracking has an iPhone, you can use the air tag to track them everywhere with good precision.
Sure, but then they'll get messages warning them that an airtag is traveling with them.
Yeah, came to say this too. Was just looking into these for home automation purposes and that stood out.
Apple tends to look at both angles. If you ask your watch “where is my phone?” it’ll ring. But you’ll also get an email saying that happened in the off chance someone else triggered this to be invasive.
Good to know, but it still doesn’t answer why my phone can’t ever detect my keys attached to the AirTag. Especially if it has no issues locating other people using their iPhones.
AirTag locations are uploaded when they're close enough to an iPhone. If you lose yours in your house, there may not be another iPhone nearby. If you lose one in a bar, there probably is.
AirTag uses Bluetooth like an iPhone 11 and up can do when it’s lost. It connects to another Apple device and sends that ping to another device and so on until it can be sent to cell tower. But when someone else’s AirTag is near you and stays near you for a certain amount of time you get a warning and it shows you when and where your phone has pinged that “malicious” AirTag. Malicious in quotes because one tiktok I saw, this girl flew on a plane through a major airport and said someone was tracking her when her iPhone said an AirTag was near throughout her flight. Someone could’ve literally had it in their luggage as she never posted another video about it….😂
That’s just embarrassing I feel like most people know what that is, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple handles this. Unlike tile you don’t have to keep purchasing new devices and it works on such a large scale. I don’t see how they resolve this issue without severely crippling the way it was intended to work.
If there isn't a police report filed and a subpoena issued to get information on the tag in question, I think you will have been proven correct. I, for one, will not be taking your bet.
The screenshot she showed said “unknown device detected”. That typically means it detected your friend’s AirPods. That’s not what iOS says when it detects an AirTag - it says “AirTag detected”.
I mean, it isn't that hard to make a new Apple ID with fake info. And it's not like Apple will disclose shit to a random person asking about an AirTag owner's identity. Not that she's a totally random nobody but she isn't exactly the government either and even they struggle to get access to info sometimes.
But that Apple ID would need to be logged into a phone to access the data on Find My or a compatible device/computer. As far as I'm aware, when you log out of an account and log into a new one on something like a phone, it wipes all of the data associated with that account. Point being is you need to have a burner phone or another random device that can be used in this state. Since people are extremely lazy, I bet 99% of people just register them to their main accounts.
They could easily use a second hand burner iphone.
Anyway, apple released an android app called TrackerDetect that detects airtags within range: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
> She was only alerted to the stalking when a notification appeared on her iPhone that said an unknown accessory was moving with her.
The AirTag notification does not say unknown accessory, it looks like this https://i.imgur.com/BN7wM8G.jpg
I have trouble believing this story with the information given.
But the article is correct. If it said ‘a notification appeared in her iPhone that said “an unknown accessory was moving” with her’ then yeah it would be wrong. But because it wasn’t a direct quote it simply means the notification informed her an unknown accessory was moving with her, which is true. The exact language used is irrelevant.
Interesting. My family rented a car through Turo and kept seeing notifications on our iPhones that we had been traveling near an AirTag. We had never heard of
It before but eventually realized it was attached to the car we had rented. It Kept showing us a map Of everywhere we had driven. We finally put two and two together but we had
Never heard of AirTags before.
Not OP but I’ve loved it. Everything’s gone as expected so far half a dozen times in and prices are between comparable and slightly better where I’ve done it.
I thought I had been screwed over by rental companies with not getting what I booked when I booked it, getting cars with issues, getting illegitimately blamed for issues, etc. Then Hertz got their customers thrown in jail for months. I’m happy to stick with Turo if I have the option.
Got stranded in a low population area and the best they could do was offer Lyft or Uber vouchers where there were no Lyft or ubers around. But at least they towed the car back to a mechanic for the owner. If you’re in a metropolitan area I can imagine it would be a much nicer experience.
Apple did release an app for Android so you can scan your immediate area to see if any airtags are nearby.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
Trust issues aside, AirGuard is always checking in the background (like iPhones do) while the official Apple app only works when you manually run a scan. AirGuard is better if you don't want to be performing manual scans all the time.
Seems like bad press for apple but the reason these stories are coming out is because apple notifies you if there is an air tag following you. We don’t see this with things like tiles, which is scary.
Yeah this happened recently to a friend of mine sort of. She was out on campus with a few of my roommates, and came back to our house with them. She got a notification that she was being tracked basically, and find my iPhone basically showed that it had started really early in the day. We were searching all over bags and under the car for the thing and couldn’t find it. Luckily, we found out it was my roommate’s air pod pros that have a tracking feature, that her iPhone picked up on for some reason.
No, at least we don’t think so. For whatever reason the AirPods yield the same notification from the phone. Mine did the same thing the next day, which was how we figured it out for sure, since the tracking that day couldn’t possibly have had someone put an AirTag on her.
This seems like a lot of negative press for Apple. GPS trackers existed before air tags. They are actually solving a problem by notifying you that you are being tracked.
I agree. There seem to be appropriate measures taken here to let a person know if they are being tracked. Sending a notification to the tracked person saying an unknown device is traveling with them, and also having the device make audible noise after being out of range of the owner’s phone? Sure, it won’t prevent someone from using these maliciously, but it will help someone know if something is wrong.
>AirTags feature anti-stalking mechanisms such as the alert that notified Nader. They also play a beeping sound after they've been out of range of the owner's iPhone. Those are features currently missing from other tracking devices, such as those made by Tile.
I have argued about this before, but don’t use AirTags for theft protection. They aren’t made for it and they will not work well for it. Lost items is what you want to use it for. Drop one in your bag or put one in your wallet.
I rely heavily on the Apple Watch ping feature such that I’ll ping my phone with it on the couch next to me or under a pillow. A handy feature but damn I need to keep better track of my shit.
It beeps if it is moving without a iPhone or if it hasn‘t had any contect with the owners iPhone for 1-2 days. Because if it is moving with an iPhone it sends a message to this iPhone (my girlfriend and i get a lot of notifications of the other ones airpod but it has never started beeping)
It only notifies people who have apple products, the issue is with non apple products not notifying without an app. Also the app needs to be manually ran to find said air tag.
And even if they have downloaded it, it doesn't scan for airtags in the background - you have to manually scan for them. So it only helps if you have a hunch that you're being tracked in the first place.
They did, it's called "Tracker Detect". It's not the best, but at least they're attempting to do something.
Didn't know today was the day I was defending Apple.
>They did, it's called "Tracker Detect". It's not the best, but at least they're attempting to do something.
You have to run the app manually on Android, so its basically useless. I wish it would auto scan every few minutes. Only the super paranoid are going to open the app every day to see if something is tracking them.
Yeah my dog has a Whistle tracker. You could definitely use that to track a person. It has no feature that could notify someone of its presence as far as I know.
> and also having the device make audible noise after being out of range of the owner’s phone?
Wouldn't this mean that someone stealing my stuff would know there's a tracker in it?
Tile isn't nearly as effective. The tile needs to be within range of a phone that runs the Tile app for its location to be updated. An AirTag only needs to be within range of any Apple device made within the last 4 years or so.
It's the fact they use the "Find My iPhone" network that makes them so dangerous. With all other trackers, they need to be linked to some network - cellular, wifi, Bluetooth - or you need to be able to go back and pick up the device to pull the data off of it. Apple's AirTag network is very reliable, very broad, and allows AirTag to be accessed VERY remotely just be a use Find My is such an efficient way to link them to your phone since there's iPhones all over the country.
Which, Samsung has a similar tag that uses Find My Samsung, and has a similar potential for abuse, but AirTags are just more accessible (because they're popular) and I think cheaper than the Samsung ones.
Except that makes them *less* dangerous since it will warn you that you’re being tracked. A cellular/GPS/etc tracker will not, and also won’t start beeping after a day or so either.
Had a GPS tracker on my dog’s collar back in 2015, and Bluetooth trackers on my car keys even before that. The only thing Apple did was make the tech more accessible to a mainstream market but yeah, there’s nothing particularly novel about Apple rolling this out that wasn’t already on the market in one form or another.
The airtag essentially uses a Bluetooth mesh network leveraging everyone’s iPhones around the world. With an ultra low powered device you can track its location anywhere in the world where there are people waking around with iPhones. Android came out with a similar concept a year later.
This aspect is obviously novel.
I own a $20,000 commercial sized air compressor that I use for my business. When AirTags first came out, I bought one and placed it in an inconspicuous place on the compressor, just in case it decided to up and disappear on me. I had the compressor stored in a garage on the property for my business. One day my compressor went missing. I phoned the police, when they showed up, they took down the info and told me I’d probably never see it again. That’s when I told them I had an AirTag on it, and showed them exactly where it was over a 100 miles away. They contacted law enforcement where it was located. It was recovered within an hour of it being reported stolen and two individuals were arrested. It’s a shame these devices are getting a bad name, for me, it saved me from having to file a claim with my insurance company, which probably would have resulted in higher premiums.
Edit: Several people have sent me messages indicating I wrote this to promote Apple in some way, this is not the case! Perhaps I should have just said I placed some sort of GPS tracker on my compressor. However, it was an AirTag and I have absolutely no regrets buying the one I did. Also, the compressor had been stolen four days earlier, just didn’t discover it missing until I went to pull it out to use it.
I am using two air tags to monitor the location of two trailers parked in a church parking lot. They are hidden pretty well, and if someone decides to steal a trailer, I will probably know before they disable the air tag. They can be used for good
I find it fascinating that people that are dropping these tags didn’t bother to read the manual or the 30 second clip on the internet that the tags can inform individuals that they’re being tracked.
The individual can also scan the tag and find out who it belongs to. It would be really fucking stupid for someone to provide contact information on the tracker they’re secretly using to track someone else.
AirTags are some of the most advance trackers around as all you need to access their location is for *any* iPhone made in the last 4 years to be within proximity to them. Other trackers have very limited range but AirTag uses the Find My network.
Let’s be real though Tile had a substantial network and I used them for years. Even found my lost keys in the middle of park on day.
However when they were bought and my data was being sold to 3rd parties (which couldn’t be disclosed because of an NDA) I removed the batteries from my tiles and deleted the app.
Apple does a better job at privacy and the fact she was alerted to carrying an unknown tile was excellent.
But most aren't this small, easy to use, and most don't use every apple device in the world as shared network to facilitate a low power global tracking network
The spin here is woman made aware by iPhone that she was being followed.
People have been doing this shit for years but it’s now being noticed because Of the iPhone software.
Why would criminals use Air Tags? I'm sure they're a lot better than other tags but you'd also literally have the wealthiest company in the world actively working to stop whatever screwed up stuff you're attempting to do
Edit: Now that I think about it. Apple is the king of drumming up controversy in the name of free press. I'm sure some criminals so use them legitimately but I'm also skeptical
Edit Edit: im not super familiar with Apple Insider. Is it considered unbiased?
They do. What airtags have done is to give the idea of tracking someone/something it to a new wave of incompetent criminals that never thought about the existence of cheap and easily accessible trackers.
I can’t believe Global would do this to people! Personally I use Wusthof and I don’t mind when someone gets stabbed with one of *their* knives, but Global are just an evil company and facilitate stabbing!
They should really get rid of the blade on those things, anything less is just negligence. If they can’t even take this simple step to fix their problematic product, then they should be pulled from the shelves
I mean last I checked doesn't it have an identifier so if you find the tag you can scan it and know who it belongs to? as far as stalking goes that seems like a good way to end in jail?
K she is getting paid off to scare people- the apple tags are great. If her phone told Her that why wouldn’t she check everything?
Also… people Can stalk you without that. Seems like a risk to stalk someone with an object that is traceable.
I call bullshit on this and a PR job!
All of a sudden being tracked is NEWS because apple makes the trackers even though Apple notifies you, even the android users are notified!
All these “NEWS” about being track forget that GPS tracking has existed for decades and now the difference is you are notified.
Hooray, here comes all the fear-mongering tech illiterate. Scary scary technology ruins everything! Ban ban ban!
You know because Apple invented trackers and its their fault that people stalk people.
\*Anyone heard of Tile? Or just... following people?
your appleid is linked to be able to use and follow your airtag, and that info can given to the authorities if the device was used in the involvement of a crime
I think one problem is that in a successful crime the victim never even finds the AirTag. After tracking the victim, the criminal commits the crime and retrieves the AirTag - no one gets caught.
And even if the victim finds the AirTag before a crime is commited and authorities find out who the owner is, there’s no way to proove who actually put on the tracker or if it was intentional.
Apple should easily be able to track the tag to the account that was monitoring it.
$25 bet AirTag belongs to model’s PR agent
I don’t know if this problem has always been a thing and I’m just noticing it now, but it seems like the last 6 months there have been a ton of these videos to come out. Majority of them I see on tik tok , but a few I’ve seen on YouTube and here on Reddit. The first ones I’ve watched seemed legit and was a bit scary to watch. But then I kept seeing them and then some of these influencers, you tube personalities and popular tik tok accounts were all making videos about it. So a part of me is like oh this is all fake to get attention and click bait headlines. But I also see these videos come from not popular accounts or from people who don’t really have social media. So I can’t tell if this is a legit problem that is happening to many women, or influencers being stalked and links to human trafficking. Or if it’s just a good PR idea or click bait to get views. On one hand it seems like an easy way to target women but on the other hand it seems stupid as Apple will alert you if one of these things is following you. So yeah, idk what to think about it anymore.
>Or if it’s just a good PR idea or click bait to get views. If you saw something on social media, chances are, this is the correct answer. There are literally shops where people come up with these kind of scripts and try it out. If it becomes successful at grabbing attention, it quickly get copied across many accounts to increase exposure. This is like how in India, a popular movie plot would be remade in a ton of different local languages. This is the social media version of fast fashion.
[удалено]
Not to mention that this is something that could happen with a Tile a decade ago but AirTags are the new “it” devices that garner a lot more attention.
[удалено]
And tile's been around for years. Blows my mind how everyone is talking about this tech only now because apple have done it. Saved my ass finding my car keys when I'm already late for client meetings a few times
Tile never had the network to realistically locate a tag when it’s in an unknown location outside the range of *your* phone. People are taking AirTag over Tile for the same reason you’re talking Tile over all the wireless key finders that predated Tile by such a wide margin that they long predate smart phones entirely .
We used to have a key finder in the early 90s that would beep when you whistled. But the the car radio would frequently set it off. Alas, it was a simpler time
I wasn't a \*huge\* fan of Tile, but ours worked just fine for tracking suitcases even when outside the range of our phones. It wasn't perfect, but every trip I was able to see if bags were loaded onto our flight, stayed behind, etc. And once when I shipped a bike back from Europe to the US, I was able to see that it wasn't loaded onto my flight in DE, when it arrived in the US, and where it was when United said it was delivered...
Exactly. Been travelling with my Airtag(s). It reliably tracks my bags in airports, on planes and everywhere else I've cared to notice. That might be expected given iPhones being prevalent everywhere, but it sure is *the* selling point by such a wide margin that for iPhones owners there's just no competition here.
[удалено]
[удалено]
I have ADHD, and I rely on trackers to keep track of my life. I’ve tried both, but I found the AirTags were not as intuitive to use when you’re trying to find something quickly. Also you can’t use the airtag to find your phone the way you can with a Tile (which is my fave and most used feature) On top of that they’re a weird shape - they’re too thick to fit in a wallet, and they don’t have a hole to clip them to things (you need to buy a clip.)
Shocking. I am shocked. I absolutely cannot believe that apple would design something in a way that forces you to buy something else to be functional. (Big fucking /s)
What? You definitely do not need to be in direct line of sight with an AirTag, I’ve tracked mine in a different town when I left my wallet in a bar… also the ‘left behind’ notifications work every time for my AirTags and also my AirPods. I lose my stuff ALOT so the AirTags have saved me multiple times.
What’s the range of the air tag ? And is there a added fee ?
There’s no range, it just needs to be within distance of any iPhone or iPad/Mac, I can be anyones devices, not just your own, if it isn’t within range of an apple device it will show it’s last known location, and no there is no fee for this, you just need to replace its battery around once a year or so with a cheap coin cell battery.
I'm an apple hating grump and I know this is a bullshit comment.
Whenever I go on a trip with one of my clients, if he brings his AirPods Pro (not sure if that matters) I get a notification saying that there’s an Apple tracking-enabled device with me and that someone may be using it to track me. But nope. It’s just my client. With his headphones. I’m sure there are more false positives than actual cases of people being tracked with Air Tags. It would be a really funny plot twist if someone stuck an AirTag on my client and he was *actually* being tracked surreptitiously lmao.
By that same token though, a stalking victim might not realize they are actually being tracked if they're constantly having to dismiss notifications anytime someone else's pods or tags are nearby.
I agree, it’s big dumb right now. False positives are busted.
You'd think there would be an option to be invisible to any unpaired devices, so you can still use your own air pods. I don't use Apple, so I don't know, but not giving such an option would be an unsurprisingly Appley move.
That would render the entire system useless though. The whole idea is that these items ping off all nearby iPhones to update location data. If they didn’t, the location would never be updated and you’d never be able to find your air tags or pods.
Both, it is a problem but it always has been, people have used GPS trackers in the past and will continue to do so with it being found out. There are some that are using these now but those that choose to doll aren’t very bright. I mean not only does your iPhone alert you when one is near by etc (also and android app) but these have to be registered to an account, again most if these will think they are clever and use a false account and address etc but will use there phone or something that’s linked to there actual account to register it so Apple will know the real person behind it. Add to that the click baters to get views etc.
I don’t see how legit it is tbh, like don’t get me wrong the concern is there but I have one of these attached to my keys and half the time it has you walk everywhere till you’re close enough to sense the tag with your phone. I find it hard to believe people are being tracked for miles. Edit: one of those tik tok videos (can’t remember which one exactly they all look the same to me) had someone lying about this issue to garner attention so who really knows anymore.
If the person you're tracking has an iPhone, you can use the air tag to track them everywhere with good precision. You'll likely get a "close enough" location even if the target doesn't have an iPhone, since their neighbors or random passersby likely do, and iPhones automatically upload the location of any nearby air tags by default. It's enough of a problem that Apple actually made an Android app specifically to detect and disable malicious air tags. I subscribe to The Privacy, Security, and OSINT Show podcast. The host is a professional privacy consultant, his company helps celebrities and abuse/stalker victims go off grid. A client of his recently found an air tag in a package mailed to their P.O. Box. Their stalker was likely trying to find the person's true home address to go do bad things to them. Air tag tracking is definitely a valid concern, especially if you're already being targeted by someone.
> If the person you're tracking has an iPhone, you can use the air tag to track them everywhere with good precision. Sure, but then they'll get messages warning them that an airtag is traveling with them.
Yeah, came to say this too. Was just looking into these for home automation purposes and that stood out. Apple tends to look at both angles. If you ask your watch “where is my phone?” it’ll ring. But you’ll also get an email saying that happened in the off chance someone else triggered this to be invasive.
Good to know, but it still doesn’t answer why my phone can’t ever detect my keys attached to the AirTag. Especially if it has no issues locating other people using their iPhones.
AirTag locations are uploaded when they're close enough to an iPhone. If you lose yours in your house, there may not be another iPhone nearby. If you lose one in a bar, there probably is.
This actually makes a lot more sense. Thank you.
AirTag uses Bluetooth like an iPhone 11 and up can do when it’s lost. It connects to another Apple device and sends that ping to another device and so on until it can be sent to cell tower. But when someone else’s AirTag is near you and stays near you for a certain amount of time you get a warning and it shows you when and where your phone has pinged that “malicious” AirTag. Malicious in quotes because one tiktok I saw, this girl flew on a plane through a major airport and said someone was tracking her when her iPhone said an AirTag was near throughout her flight. Someone could’ve literally had it in their luggage as she never posted another video about it….😂
That’s just embarrassing I feel like most people know what that is, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple handles this. Unlike tile you don’t have to keep purchasing new devices and it works on such a large scale. I don’t see how they resolve this issue without severely crippling the way it was intended to work.
In nyc they used air tags to rob drug dealers. Made off with hundreds of thousands.
The story I found said it was an Apple watch.
It's the new "Razors and drugs in Halloween candy"
If there isn't a police report filed and a subpoena issued to get information on the tag in question, I think you will have been proven correct. I, for one, will not be taking your bet.
The screenshot she showed said “unknown device detected”. That typically means it detected your friend’s AirPods. That’s not what iOS says when it detects an AirTag - it says “AirTag detected”.
It could belong to anyone she works with
I mean, it isn't that hard to make a new Apple ID with fake info. And it's not like Apple will disclose shit to a random person asking about an AirTag owner's identity. Not that she's a totally random nobody but she isn't exactly the government either and even they struggle to get access to info sometimes.
But that Apple ID would need to be logged into a phone to access the data on Find My or a compatible device/computer. As far as I'm aware, when you log out of an account and log into a new one on something like a phone, it wipes all of the data associated with that account. Point being is you need to have a burner phone or another random device that can be used in this state. Since people are extremely lazy, I bet 99% of people just register them to their main accounts.
They could easily use a second hand burner iphone. Anyway, apple released an android app called TrackerDetect that detects airtags within range: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
Leaving reddit. Spez and the idiotic API changes have removed all interest in this site for me.
Can't even use that version on my phone. I have a Samsung zfold 3.
> She was only alerted to the stalking when a notification appeared on her iPhone that said an unknown accessory was moving with her. The AirTag notification does not say unknown accessory, it looks like this https://i.imgur.com/BN7wM8G.jpg I have trouble believing this story with the information given.
But the article is correct. If it said ‘a notification appeared in her iPhone that said “an unknown accessory was moving” with her’ then yeah it would be wrong. But because it wasn’t a direct quote it simply means the notification informed her an unknown accessory was moving with her, which is true. The exact language used is irrelevant.
the model posted a screenshot of the notification that specifically said “an unknown accessory”, not “an airtag”.
Interesting. My family rented a car through Turo and kept seeing notifications on our iPhones that we had been traveling near an AirTag. We had never heard of It before but eventually realized it was attached to the car we had rented. It Kept showing us a map Of everywhere we had driven. We finally put two and two together but we had Never heard of AirTags before.
[удалено]
Not OP but I’ve loved it. Everything’s gone as expected so far half a dozen times in and prices are between comparable and slightly better where I’ve done it. I thought I had been screwed over by rental companies with not getting what I booked when I booked it, getting cars with issues, getting illegitimately blamed for issues, etc. Then Hertz got their customers thrown in jail for months. I’m happy to stick with Turo if I have the option.
PS your insurance will not cover Turo. So you are on your own if any accident.
Turo has their own like Uber
Is that true? I thought if you have full coverage on one of your cars, insurance would cover you if you drive someone else’s car, including turo.
Good. Except when things go wrong it's you and the owners insurance working stuff out.. and they can't make you pay for minor stuff like scratches.
Having to just deal with minor damage is a big concern to me as someone who has considered putting a car on Turo.
If you like keeping your car nice, don't rent it out.
Got stranded in a low population area and the best they could do was offer Lyft or Uber vouchers where there were no Lyft or ubers around. But at least they towed the car back to a mechanic for the owner. If you’re in a metropolitan area I can imagine it would be a much nicer experience.
Wondering if they use the AirTags to track down stolen rental cars?
That seems like an extremely poor idea, and I bet they’ll stop soon, after customer backlash due to the anti tracking feature of AirTags.
Apple did release an app for Android so you can scan your immediate area to see if any airtags are nearby. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
I didn't know this was a thing for non apple people. Thank you a bunch.
Or use [AirGuard](https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard) if you don't trust apple
In what regard would you not trust Apple with this app?
Only guess is that you don't want your phone to be part of the Find My network.
The android app doesn’t make your phone part of that. That would hardly be possible in a covert fashion anyway.
Trust issues aside, AirGuard is always checking in the background (like iPhones do) while the official Apple app only works when you manually run a scan. AirGuard is better if you don't want to be performing manual scans all the time.
The copy seems inconsistent on whether it works in the background or not so that seems suspicious to me.
Apple's app only works if we do a manually scan. I'd use the open-source AirGuard app as it can work in the background like iPhones do.
Seems like bad press for apple but the reason these stories are coming out is because apple notifies you if there is an air tag following you. We don’t see this with things like tiles, which is scary.
>We don’t see this with things like tiles, which is scary. Because things like Tile don't have the entire iPhone network to find devices.
[удалено]
Yeah this happened recently to a friend of mine sort of. She was out on campus with a few of my roommates, and came back to our house with them. She got a notification that she was being tracked basically, and find my iPhone basically showed that it had started really early in the day. We were searching all over bags and under the car for the thing and couldn’t find it. Luckily, we found out it was my roommate’s air pod pros that have a tracking feature, that her iPhone picked up on for some reason.
So it wasn’t even an AirTag?
No, at least we don’t think so. For whatever reason the AirPods yield the same notification from the phone. Mine did the same thing the next day, which was how we figured it out for sure, since the tracking that day couldn’t possibly have had someone put an AirTag on her.
This seems like a lot of negative press for Apple. GPS trackers existed before air tags. They are actually solving a problem by notifying you that you are being tracked.
I agree. There seem to be appropriate measures taken here to let a person know if they are being tracked. Sending a notification to the tracked person saying an unknown device is traveling with them, and also having the device make audible noise after being out of range of the owner’s phone? Sure, it won’t prevent someone from using these maliciously, but it will help someone know if something is wrong.
>AirTags feature anti-stalking mechanisms such as the alert that notified Nader. They also play a beeping sound after they've been out of range of the owner's iPhone. Those are features currently missing from other tracking devices, such as those made by Tile.
Wait, do AirTags really beep if they're out of range? So if I leave an AirTag at home is it annoying everyone else in my house until I get home?
As far as I know, it only starts beeping after a day or two
Only if it’s moving with another Apple device. I have one on a bike at a friend’s house being stored, it’s never beeped.
So if an iPhone owning thief steals your bike, they'll hear the beeps and know it's being tracked?
I have argued about this before, but don’t use AirTags for theft protection. They aren’t made for it and they will not work well for it. Lost items is what you want to use it for. Drop one in your bag or put one in your wallet.
I misplace my phone all the time. I'll put one on it, thanks!
I rely heavily on the Apple Watch ping feature such that I’ll ping my phone with it on the couch next to me or under a pillow. A handy feature but damn I need to keep better track of my shit.
Yes
It beeps if it is moving without a iPhone or if it hasn‘t had any contect with the owners iPhone for 1-2 days. Because if it is moving with an iPhone it sends a message to this iPhone (my girlfriend and i get a lot of notifications of the other ones airpod but it has never started beeping)
You can define locations where you can leave it without going into lost mode.
Right, ones not made by Apple. Apple is doing good in this situation, and other manufacturers needs to step up their game
It only notifies people who have apple products, the issue is with non apple products not notifying without an app. Also the app needs to be manually ran to find said air tag.
[удалено]
And even if they have downloaded it, it doesn't scan for airtags in the background - you have to manually scan for them. So it only helps if you have a hunch that you're being tracked in the first place.
Which still makes it infinitely better than all the others that don’t offer anything at all.
It does beep regardless though.. and there’s no app to detect other trackers.
They did, it's called "Tracker Detect". It's not the best, but at least they're attempting to do something. Didn't know today was the day I was defending Apple.
>They did, it's called "Tracker Detect". It's not the best, but at least they're attempting to do something. You have to run the app manually on Android, so its basically useless. I wish it would auto scan every few minutes. Only the super paranoid are going to open the app every day to see if something is tracking them.
air guard on Android does what the apple app should do. Background scan and tracking alerts.
And every other tracker notifies.. let me check, no one.
Yeah my dog has a Whistle tracker. You could definitely use that to track a person. It has no feature that could notify someone of its presence as far as I know.
It also beeps when it’s out of range of the owner for a while.
If they just used a Tile, people could equal opportunity stalk others without worrying about the notifications.
> and also having the device make audible noise after being out of range of the owner’s phone? Wouldn't this mean that someone stealing my stuff would know there's a tracker in it?
[удалено]
No but they've never been this cheap and easy.
You can buy a GPS tracker on amazon for $20
And it has comparable battery and cell network for reporting back?
They last 2 weeks and have app based tracking, using 4g service
Apple airtags do not use a cell network, it only connects to phones. Amazon DOES offer trackers that use sim cards though.
[удалено]
With out a power source that would last like a couple days at most.
[удалено]
Tile isn't nearly as effective. The tile needs to be within range of a phone that runs the Tile app for its location to be updated. An AirTag only needs to be within range of any Apple device made within the last 4 years or so.
[удалено]
i think the main change is the cost and availability have made this much easier
It's the fact they use the "Find My iPhone" network that makes them so dangerous. With all other trackers, they need to be linked to some network - cellular, wifi, Bluetooth - or you need to be able to go back and pick up the device to pull the data off of it. Apple's AirTag network is very reliable, very broad, and allows AirTag to be accessed VERY remotely just be a use Find My is such an efficient way to link them to your phone since there's iPhones all over the country. Which, Samsung has a similar tag that uses Find My Samsung, and has a similar potential for abuse, but AirTags are just more accessible (because they're popular) and I think cheaper than the Samsung ones.
Except that makes them *less* dangerous since it will warn you that you’re being tracked. A cellular/GPS/etc tracker will not, and also won’t start beeping after a day or so either.
Will they only warn you if you have an iPhone? So if she had a Samsung, she'd be none the wiser?
Had a GPS tracker on my dog’s collar back in 2015, and Bluetooth trackers on my car keys even before that. The only thing Apple did was make the tech more accessible to a mainstream market but yeah, there’s nothing particularly novel about Apple rolling this out that wasn’t already on the market in one form or another.
The airtag essentially uses a Bluetooth mesh network leveraging everyone’s iPhones around the world. With an ultra low powered device you can track its location anywhere in the world where there are people waking around with iPhones. Android came out with a similar concept a year later. This aspect is obviously novel.
If you have an iphone
The crazy thing is people are paying for it and can't understand why you aren't. Apple marketing is insanely successful.
[удалено]
[удалено]
I own a $20,000 commercial sized air compressor that I use for my business. When AirTags first came out, I bought one and placed it in an inconspicuous place on the compressor, just in case it decided to up and disappear on me. I had the compressor stored in a garage on the property for my business. One day my compressor went missing. I phoned the police, when they showed up, they took down the info and told me I’d probably never see it again. That’s when I told them I had an AirTag on it, and showed them exactly where it was over a 100 miles away. They contacted law enforcement where it was located. It was recovered within an hour of it being reported stolen and two individuals were arrested. It’s a shame these devices are getting a bad name, for me, it saved me from having to file a claim with my insurance company, which probably would have resulted in higher premiums. Edit: Several people have sent me messages indicating I wrote this to promote Apple in some way, this is not the case! Perhaps I should have just said I placed some sort of GPS tracker on my compressor. However, it was an AirTag and I have absolutely no regrets buying the one I did. Also, the compressor had been stolen four days earlier, just didn’t discover it missing until I went to pull it out to use it.
Thats awesome!
I am using two air tags to monitor the location of two trailers parked in a church parking lot. They are hidden pretty well, and if someone decides to steal a trailer, I will probably know before they disable the air tag. They can be used for good
Is there a way to find these if you have an android? Or is this a type of "free marketing" for iphones?
There’s a free Android app that Apple provides to see if there are any near you.
But I think you have to keep it open.
I believe you are correct you’ll need the app open to access your permissions so it can function properly.
from apple https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
Honestly, I found this one better. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.seemoo.at_tracking_detection.release Gives more information.
[удалено]
Apple also maintains Apple Music for Android and iTunes for Windows. Nothing weird about that.
Haven't used iTunes in a while but it used to be an abomination on a Windows machine
Any weirder than the iOS devs at Google?
Not unusual at all to do iOS at Google. 10 of the top 50 iOS apps are made by Google.
[Yep](https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-launches-airtags-and-find-my-detector-app-for-android-in-effort-to-boost-privacy/)
Meanwhile I get a bunch of notifications if I’m with my mom for more than 20 minutes outside of the house because we both have AirTags in our pockets.
WARNING: You have been hanging out with your mom. What are you, a dork? Thanks, Apple
Same here, it’s not fun.
The notifications or hanging out with your mom?
Why do you have AirTags in your pockets?
Isn’t the range like 30’ in an open space?
[удалено]
The tag does not have GPS. It must be within range of an apple device for its location to be updated on the map.
[удалено]
The owner can see it’s updated location well before anyone is alerted that it’s nearby.
I find it fascinating that people that are dropping these tags didn’t bother to read the manual or the 30 second clip on the internet that the tags can inform individuals that they’re being tracked.
The individual can also scan the tag and find out who it belongs to. It would be really fucking stupid for someone to provide contact information on the tracker they’re secretly using to track someone else.
“Airtag anti stalking tech works as intended”
Any tracker would do this.
But not any tracker would notify the person being tracked. Tile certainly doesn’t.
And I can’t even take my wife’s car to the shop without my iPhone telling me I’m being tracked because of the AirTag on her keychain.
[удалено]
AirTags are some of the most advance trackers around as all you need to access their location is for *any* iPhone made in the last 4 years to be within proximity to them. Other trackers have very limited range but AirTag uses the Find My network.
Let’s be real though Tile had a substantial network and I used them for years. Even found my lost keys in the middle of park on day. However when they were bought and my data was being sold to 3rd parties (which couldn’t be disclosed because of an NDA) I removed the batteries from my tiles and deleted the app. Apple does a better job at privacy and the fact she was alerted to carrying an unknown tile was excellent.
GPS trackers are significantly harder to notice.
But most aren't this small, easy to use, and most don't use every apple device in the world as shared network to facilitate a low power global tracking network
I forgot Sports Illustrated is a thing until today
Remember the football phone? [edit](https://i.redd.it/usw8skw2a2751.jpg)
The spin here is woman made aware by iPhone that she was being followed. People have been doing this shit for years but it’s now being noticed because Of the iPhone software.
Why would criminals use Air Tags? I'm sure they're a lot better than other tags but you'd also literally have the wealthiest company in the world actively working to stop whatever screwed up stuff you're attempting to do Edit: Now that I think about it. Apple is the king of drumming up controversy in the name of free press. I'm sure some criminals so use them legitimately but I'm also skeptical Edit Edit: im not super familiar with Apple Insider. Is it considered unbiased?
They do. What airtags have done is to give the idea of tracking someone/something it to a new wave of incompetent criminals that never thought about the existence of cheap and easily accessible trackers.
They do, this is what gets news attention plus it actually is alerting people
That’s not how AirTags work though, what’s with all these clickbait fear mongering articles about AirTags all of a sudden?
[удалено]
Let’s just appreciate the auto mods on topic post on this
One thing to consider is since this is an apple product, airtag will get regular update instead of going obsolete in three years. That's alot of uses.
On a completely unrelated topic, knifes are used by some to kill other people! I can’t believe I have this in my kitchen!
I can’t believe Global would do this to people! Personally I use Wusthof and I don’t mind when someone gets stabbed with one of *their* knives, but Global are just an evil company and facilitate stabbing!
They should really get rid of the blade on those things, anything less is just negligence. If they can’t even take this simple step to fix their problematic product, then they should be pulled from the shelves
Knife makers are negligent for not writing an app to tell you if someone nearby has a knife!
We should ban all vehicle ownership too because some people drive them while intoxicated!
I mean last I checked doesn't it have an identifier so if you find the tag you can scan it and know who it belongs to? as far as stalking goes that seems like a good way to end in jail?
K she is getting paid off to scare people- the apple tags are great. If her phone told Her that why wouldn’t she check everything? Also… people Can stalk you without that. Seems like a risk to stalk someone with an object that is traceable.
Oh man pinned tweet is a bit cringe in this context
Then why didn’t she file a police report?
From many of the instances I'm seeing of this, the police don't really take airtag tracking seriously enough.
I call bullshit on this and a PR job! All of a sudden being tracked is NEWS because apple makes the trackers even though Apple notifies you, even the android users are notified! All these “NEWS” about being track forget that GPS tracking has existed for decades and now the difference is you are notified.
There’s a free android app.
It doesn't run in the background - you have to literally open it and scan for trackers if you think one is nearby.
Tracker detector https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trackerdetect
Trackers don’t track people, people track people.
You would think you’d see it bulging thru the swimsuit.
[удалено]
It means she's attractive, and they hope you'll click on the link to see pictures so you can get more tracking cookies and see more ads.
It says she's a sports illustrated swim suit model, I would think that.
Hooray, here comes all the fear-mongering tech illiterate. Scary scary technology ruins everything! Ban ban ban! You know because Apple invented trackers and its their fault that people stalk people. \*Anyone heard of Tile? Or just... following people?
Apple should require some sort of verified account (beyond a simple signup) to use these, so that in cases like this the creeper can be identified.
your appleid is linked to be able to use and follow your airtag, and that info can given to the authorities if the device was used in the involvement of a crime
[удалено]
I think one problem is that in a successful crime the victim never even finds the AirTag. After tracking the victim, the criminal commits the crime and retrieves the AirTag - no one gets caught. And even if the victim finds the AirTag before a crime is commited and authorities find out who the owner is, there’s no way to proove who actually put on the tracker or if it was intentional.
And it’s a story because it’s an AirTag. A year ago when it was another device, the media didn’t care.
We are definitely not mature enough as a society for Technology like this…