Apple has shared its planned actions and new features, coming later this year, designed to prevent unwanted AirTag tracking, including updated alerts and safety warnings.
New features coming to prevent unwanted AirTag tracking
Writing in a post onApple Newsroom, the company acknowledges that it, too, read about cases of bad actors using their AirTags for nefarious purposes, stalking and similar.
We’ve become aware that individuals can receive unwanted tracking alerts for benign reasons, such as when borrowing someone’s keys with an AirTag attached or when traveling in a car with a family member’s AirPods left inside. We also have seen reports of bad actors attempting to misuse AirTag for malicious or criminal purposes.
Interestingly, the Cupertino company went on to claim that incidents of AirTag misuse are “rare,” but added in the same breath that “each instance is one too many.”
To help prevent unwanted AirTag tracking and make its personal item tracker more secure to use, Apple has laid out several privacy-enhancing features due later in 2022. The planned measures include using the loudest tones for the unwanted tracking alert, notifying users earlier of unknown AirTags that could be traveling with them and displaying a notification on your iPhone when an AirTag emits proximity warning sound.
Furthermore, the company will be taking these additional steps:
Right in the second paragraph Apple makes it clear it’s set on actively fighting unwanted AirTag tracking. Read:What to do if an unknown AirTag is found moving with you
AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products
And lastly, here’s how Apple partners with law enforcement on this problem:
Every AirTag has a unique serial number, and paired AirTags are associated with an Apple ID. Apple can provide the paired account details in response to a subpoena or valid request from law enforcement. We have successfully partnered with them on cases where information we provided has been used to trace an AirTag back to the perpetrator, who was then apprehended and charged.
