AirTag stalking victims unconvinced by Apple fixes
Conceived as an aid for the absent-minded, AirTag sensors are being diverted towards more sinister ends, with manufacturer Apple facing anger -- and lawsuits -- over their use as a stalking tool.
The silver and white gadget the size of a large coin is "an easy way to keep track of your stuff," the Apple website boasts. Customers can attach it to their keys, a wallet or a backpack.
When linked to a smartphone app, a $29 AirTag helps users detect their belongings' real-time location in case they get lost -- but the transmitter can also trail the humans carrying those items, sometimes without their knowledge.
That's what happened to singer Alison Carney in June 2022, when she found an unknown AirTag in her bag while preparing to go on stage at a concert venue in Chicago.
Carney had not put the AirTag in there herself and says she never got an iPhone notification warning her an unknown accessory was found nearby.
- 'Violated' -
Though unsettling, the discovery helped Carney make sense of several confusing events in her life.
Ever since the end of their tumultuous relationship, Carney's ex-boyfriend had been incessantly calling and messaging, even pounding on her door in the middle of the night or showing up at restaurants where she was eating.
"It just became obvious once we found the AirTag that... I wasn't crazy," Carney, who lives in Washington, told AFP. "I know that someone's tracking (me)."
"I felt violated. I retreated. I stopped going out," she added.
"I know that someone has the ability to put a device on my body or on my property that can track me for the rest of my life, and they're getting smaller and smaller and smaller and harder to detect."
Carney is not alone in having been tracked against her will with an AirTag.
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