In 2021, Apple released the AirTag tracker for dispersed users.
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In 2021, Apple released the AirTag tracker for dispersed users. With the help of a coin-sized device, you can find forgotten keys, bags, and other things that owners around the world lose every day. You only need to attach the AirTag to an item that could be lost. Sometimes this even helped to find stolen bicycles, motorcycles and cars.
However, almost immediately after the start of sales of the tracker, reports began to arrive that with its help many people became objects of surveillance by strangers.
In the United States, the number of such cases has already reached hundreds, and these are only those that are known to the police. In order to find out where she lives, where she goes and with whom this or that person meets, trackers hide in cars, throw themselves into bags, attach to the inside of outer clothing.
American singer Alison Carney wondered why her ex would find her wherever she turned up until she accidentally found an AirTag in her bag. In Germany, one activist was even able to track down an agency associated with local counterintelligence by sending them such a tracker. It’s about tragedies: In Texas, a girl killed her boyfriend, suspecting him of being a traitor based on data from devices.
Apple dutifully condemns this use of the tracker. As planned by the manufacturers, the device should beep and send a warning to the iPhone so that someone else’s “mistake” can be detected. In fact, many surveillance victims claim that they received no notification at all. In 2022, under public pressure, the company promised to fix the bugs and released an update. For Android owners who used to be completely helpless, Apple has even developed an AirTag detection app.
However, the surveillance victims who have already filed a class action lawsuit against the company consider these measures insufficient: the notification still comes after a few hours and only on the latest iPhones.
