Apple released the AirTag earlier this year, and for the reasons I explained in my review, it is a great device for finding lost items. When Apple designed the AirTag, it also thought about the possibility that they would be misused as a way to stalk someone. For example, have been incidents in the past in which tracking devices made by other companies had been hidden in a car or other object owned by a victim. I learned a little about how this system works when my wife recently took a trip and used a piece of luggage on which I still had one of my AirTags. Here is what happened.
Only a few minutes after I dropped off my wife at the New Orleans airport, I got an alert that my "Luggage" AirTag was no longer with me. (And that was the first time that I remembered that it was on the luggage.) If I had left my luggage behind by mistake, this would have been a useful reminder to go back and get my luggage.
I received that notification because in the FindMy app, I turned on an option to notify me when an item is left behind. Of course, I wouldn't want to get an alert every time I left home without my luggage. Fortunately, you can also create exceptions so that you won't get a notification if you are separated from your AirTag and it located at a specific location, such as your house.
When I got home, I could see in the FindMy app that my Luggage AirTag was at the airport.
Later that day, after my wife's plane had landed, my wife's iPhone gave her an alert that and AirTag belonging to someone else had been moving with her. The alert said: "The location of this AirTag can be seen by" and then it provided my Apple ID email address. When she tapped that alert, the FindMy app gave her a Safety Alert. It showed her a picture of an AirTag and then explained that the owner of the AirTag could see her current location:
The FindMy app also told her that an AirTag belonging to my Apple ID email address was first seen with her at a specific time — which was that moment that I left the airport with my Luggage AirTag near my wife and not me. It also gave her the option to play a sound on the AirTag, which would have helped to locate the AirTag if it had been in a hidden location. As Apple explains on this page of its website, the FindMy app can also be used to turn off AirTag detection notifications and to get directions on how to disable the AirTag.
What if a stalker places an AirTag near a victim who does not have an iPhone? After a period of time, the AirTag will start to play an alert beep. If the AirTag is held close to a smartphone that supports NFC — even an Android phone — the smartphone will provide additional device about the AirTag.
A dedicated stalker may be able to find ways around some of these protections, but it is nice to see that Apple designed the AirTag with privacy in mind.
Click here to get an AirTag from Amazon ($29, or four for $99).