Living with the fear of being tracked by Apple accessories

On Sunday night while at a friend's house, Ashley Estrada received a notification on her iPhone: "Detected AirTag near you".

Estrada, 24, of Los Angeles, said she and her friends don't own any Apple AirTags. However, the notification on her phone shows that the accessory was first discovered near her four hours ago. AirTag's travel history map also shows the twisty roads she's driven through while working in the city.

"It's scary. The only thing I think about is who's watching me. What's their purpose?" she said, feeling seriously violated.

Estrada is not the only case. On social networks like TikTok, Twitter, Reddit in recent months, a series of users have shared about finding AirTag in cars or on personal belongings.

The device is only 3 cm in diameter, which was introduced by Apple so that users can "track their personal items" if lost. However, since its launch in April 2021, the product is feared by experts that it could be used to become a tool for snooping and tracking others.

To date, this risk has come true and is spreading.

The New York Times reported that it spoke to seven women who discovered they were being tracked using Apple devices.

There is also a case that is assessed as "not illegally monitored". For example, a 17-year-old girl whose mother secretly put an AirTag in her car for fear of her child missing, or a girl who uses a rental car with a device built in. However, all respondents experienced a state of fear and some have reported to the police or contacted Apple for assistance.

After leaving the gym one day in November 2021, Michaela Clough of Corning, California received a notification on her phone saying she was being followed by "an unidentified accessory". When he got home, Clough immediately called the police. However, the condition was that she needed to prove someone showed up at her house. The line of notifications on the iPhone is not enough to be proof of this.

Clough then contacted Apple customer service and disconnected the strange device from her iPhone. "I'm still extremely scared and frustrated because there's nothing I can do about it," Clough said, adding that she had to stay home for a week after that, never going back to the gym before.

In another case, Erika Torres, a music student in New Orleans, found herself being followed by an "unidentified accessory". The device stayed with her for about two hours before it was discovered, starting to follow her from a bar, then all the way to her house.

Suspecting it to be an AirTag, Torres tried searching but couldn't find any such devices. When she called Apple, she was told the message could have come from another device, like AirPods. The video shared about this situation was posted by Torres on his personal YouTube channel and received dozens of comments from people who had similar experiences.

Over the past few months, several security agencies have begun to take a closer look at the threat posed by Apple AirTag. A local police department in Canada said it had investigated at least five luxury car thefts in which the AirTag was used as a means of helping thieves track the vehicle's location. The West Seneca Police Department in New York also warned the community about the tracking capabilities of Apple devices, after a strange AirTag was found in a car. Police said Apple has complied with the investigation of this case.

AirTag isn't the only product out there with location tracking. Before Apple, there was a successful startup project with a similar product, Tile. However, according to many security researchers, AirTag is a "particularly harmful" threat. AirTags use Bluetooth, but they can emit a digital signal to connect to surrounding Apple devices and report the last connected location. The popularity of Apple devices makes tracking via AirTag even more accurate.

"Apple makes every iOS device part of a network for AirTag to use and report its location. Apple's network is broader and stronger than other networks, so it's also more dangerous to be hacked. used to snoop," said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Apple did not disclose how many AirTags it sold. However, this $29 product has been repeatedly "sold out" since its launch 8 months ago.

Alex Kirschner, an Apple spokesman, said the company takes the safety of its users seriously and is AirTag's "commitment to privacy and security". To prevent misuse, Kirschner says the device is equipped with a feature that notifies users if an unknown AirTag is near them.

However, Apple's solutions are not considered enough to protect users. Many people said that it took hours or even days of being tracked before they received a notification on their phone. For people who don't use iPhones, being tracked is even more difficult. Although Apple has released support software for Android, they still need to proactively leak scans to detect risks. The AirTag also has a sound-activated feature that helps find strange AirTags, but the sound coming from this device is said to be too low to be heard.

Apple recommends that users can contact local law enforcement if an unknown AirTag is detected. However, in many cases, like Michaela Clough's above, the notification on the iPhone is not enough evidence to report to the police.

The location where Estrada discovered the hidden AirTag was behind the car's license plate. Photo: New York Times

In the case of Estrada, after searching, she found the AirTag located on the back of the license plate of her Dodge Charger 2020. When she alerted the police, she was told it was "not an emergency". She believes that Apple products can be made with good intentions, but experience shows that they are being exploited for bad purposes.

"Imagine you get a notification that you're being tracked, but there's nothing you can do about it," said Jahna Maramba, a customer of the car rental service, after discovering the owner had secretly attached an AirTag to the car. car before handing it over to her.

Via New York Times

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