Apple was just lately sued by two girls who declare AirTags have been used to violate their privateness.
Within the weeks following the launch of the AirTag, privateness advocates expressed issues concerning the monitoring gadget. Apple instructs customers to connect the Bluetooth tracker to vital objects that they could lose, equivalent to keys, wallets, or backpacks. Sadly, regardless of Apple’s claims that the AirTag is “stalker proof,” a number of worrying reports counsel in any other case.
AirTag privateness issues raised in new lawsuit
In keeping with one of many two girls suing Apple, an ex-boyfriend planted an AirTag within the wheel nicely of a tire on her automobile in an effort to discover her after she moved to keep away from his harassment. He had additionally coloured the AirTag with a sharpie and tied it up in a plastic bag to disguise it.
The opposite girl says her ex-husband, who had been harassing her for her whereabouts, put an AirTag into her youngster’s backpack to trace their actions. She eliminated and tried to disable the primary AirTag, however discovered one other within the youngster’s backpack quickly after.
“Ms. Doe [the second woman] continues to worry for her security—at minimal, her stalker has evidenced a dedication to persevering with to make use of AirTags to trace, harass, and threaten her, and continues to make use of AirTags to search out Plaintiff’s location,” the lawsuit stated. “[She] seeks to convey this motion anonymously because of the actual danger that being recognized would expose her to elevated danger of harassment and/or bodily hurt.”
Earlier this yr, Apple began updating the AirTag in an try to get rid of undesirable monitoring. Apple added new privateness warnings throughout the setup course of, gave recipients of an undesirable monitoring alert the power to find close by AirTags, elevated the quantity of the undesirable monitoring alert sound, and extra. However that didn’t make the AirTag “stalker proof.”
“Whereas Apple has constructed safeguards into the AirTag product, they’re woefully insufficient, and do little, if something, to promptly warn people if they’re being tracked,” the lawsuit provides. On the time of writing, Apple had but to touch upon the lawsuit.