AirTag Warning Stopped An Already Stolen Truck From Being Stolen Again
A warning for one of Apple's AirTags, a personal tracker that allows users to track their belongings, revealed the coin-sized puck was planted in a truck thieves planned to steal. AirTags have been used for all sorts of tasks outside of the company's recommended use case. People have used the tracking devices in everything from locating a stolen car to actually stealing cars by tracking their location. That's far outside the vision Apple had for the product: the company says AirTags are meant to retrieve lost — not stolen — items. To make matters worse, people are even using the compact trackers to stalk people without their knowledge. With all of these nefarious use cases for the AirTag becoming more prominent, it's easy to wonder whether the benefits outweigh the potential harm that could come from such an accurate, compact tracker.
The company wasn't exactly surprised at these potential uses for the trackers. From day one, Apple added notifications that would alert people if an AirTag was detected as moving with them for a period of time. After concerns about the length of time it would take to alert a potential stalking victim, the company updated its software to shorten the time before a warning is presented. These concerns became so widespread that Apple actually made a detection app for Android phones that identifies unknown AirTags. If an AirTag is identified, users have the option to activate the speaker, view the serial number, and view instructions on how to disable the tracker (by removing the coin-cell battery).
Related: AirTag Android App Only Solves Half Of The Privacy Problem
It turns out that these alerts — that may be frustrating to family and friends of AirTag owners — really can prevent criminal
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