Apple Failed—AirTag has a HUGE Stalking Problem

One year on, the Apple AirTag product proves the dire predictions correct. Based on sample data from eight police departments, the cheap location trackers are being used to “stalk and harass women.”

A large part of the problem seems to be “former intimate partners,” causing their victims to fear for their safety from an obsessive, violent ex. All enabled, of course, by Apple’s cheap, easy-to-use, IoT-mesh-and-cloud stalkerware. And what has Apple done about it? Not a lot.

Everyone deserves healthy relationships—24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the National Domestic Violence Hotline provides essential tools and support to help survivors of domestic violence so they can live their lives free of abuse.

Cui bono? In today’s SB Blogwatch, we follow the money.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Meanwhile, in North Korea.

Apple Ignored Warnings

What’s the craic? Samantha Cole reports—“Women Are Being Stalked With Apple AirTags Across the Country”:

A major red flag
Attach an AirTag to your purse, keys, wallet, or even your car, and if you lose it, the device will ping every nearby Apple product with Bluetooth turned on to triangulate its location. … We obtained records from eight police departments [that] show, as security experts immediately predicted when the product launched, this technology has been used as a tool to stalk and harass women.

Of the 150 total police reports mentioning AirTags, in 50 cases women called the police because they … were being tracked by an AirTag. Of those, 25 … reported that current and former intimate partners [were] using AirTags to stalk and harass them. … Multiple women who filed these reports said they feared physical violence. … Seeing exes mysteriously appear wherever and whenever they went out was a major red flag for several. … One woman called the police because [she] had been wondering how a man she had an order of protection against seemed to always know where she was.

Apple has responded to security concerns with piecemeal, reactive updates. … Experts said that what the company has done is still not enough. … And people who go to the police to report being stalked or harassed should have better resources to protect themselves from abusers if they do go to the police.

Such as? Kris Holt has this—“Fifty women in eight jurisdictions called the cops after discovering an unwanted tracker”:

There are likely other cases
In December, Apple released an Android app to help people using phones powered by that OS detect errant AirTags. Tile updated its Android and iOS apps with a similar feature. But those require users to both be aware of the threat posed by unwanted trackers and to scan for them manually. … Google is exploring OS-level tracker detection for Android, which could help keep people safe.

Fifty reports in eight jurisdictions in eight months is a not insignificant number and there are likely other cases elsewhere that haven’t been disclosed. … The vast majority of the reports were filed by women. There was just one case in which a man made a report after suspecting that an ex was using an AirTag … to stalk him.

What’s the solution? @autobahn advocates a scorched-Earth approach:

Apple needs to disable these and pull them from the market immediately until they’re able to fix the obvious glaring issues regarding stalking with Airtags. Was there no internal review? Or was it that profits were put ahead of social costs?

I know the likely answer.

As does crowley:

Can’t believe Apple were so stupid
Kill the product, own it as a mistake. … Work with Google to build an approach to dealing with devices that track us via software. i.e., not an iOS feature that detects AirTags that are close by for a while, but doesn’t see Tile, or a Tile app that doesn’t see AirTags, but a cross platform operating system feature that detects all wireless transmission devices that are close by, AirTags, Apple Watches, Tiles, GoogleTags, SamsungTags, GPS trackers, whatever.

Can’t believe Apple were so stupid as to think this was a path worth walking. … A million people being able to find their keys a bit easier is no tradeoff for a single person being stalked.

However, Freischutz thinks that’s naïve:

There is a whole legion of tech companies that are ‘stalking you’ way more outrageously than Apple. If you want to avoid being ‘stalked’ by tech companies move into a hut in the woods and downgrade to stone tools. I know the urge to make like Captain Ahab and hate on Apple is strong but what they are doing with those tags is a moon cast shadow in terms of ‘stalking you,’ compared to the ‘stalking’ that Google and Facebook for example are doing.

Getting your panties in a twist over it is akin to getting pissed over some teenager littering, while ignoring the couple of crackheads stealing your car.

False equivalence, but whatever. Anyway, is 50 a lot? Eva “@EvaCide” Galperin says yes:

These are just the reports about AirTag stalking that make it to the police, which is the tip of the iceberg.

What a mess. But Steve sees the silver lining:

The nice thing is that the identities of 50 stalkers are now known by police, courtesy of the efforts Apple put in so far. Let’s hope that more effort by Apple leads to more cases being picked up, and some prosecutions.

And Powercntrl agrees:

The stalkers should just call the jail and make reservations. … An AirTag is a paperweight until activated with an Apple ID.

Apple made reciprocal tracking a requirement. … There’s an “in Soviet Russia” in there somewhere.

Riding in, here’s @CindyGallop:

The young white male founders of Giant Tech are not the primary targets of harassment, abuse, racism, sexual assault, violence, rape, revenge porn. So they didn’t … design for the prevention of any of those things.

Meanwhile, I can see for Miles_O’Toole: [You’re fired—Ed.]

Imagine how high the numbers on AirTag stalking would be if the police included situations where abusive cops were using them to stalk and harass women.

And Finally:

“The People’s Military Band performs at the behest of the Department of Whimsy Enforcement”

Previously in And Finally


You have been reading SB Blogwatch by Richi Jennings. Richi curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites … so you don’t have to. Hate mail may be directed to @RiCHi or [email protected]. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. E&OE. 30.

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Richi Jennings

Richi Jennings is a foolish independent industry analyst, editor, and content strategist. A former developer and marketer, he’s also written or edited for Computerworld, Microsoft, Cisco, Micro Focus, HashiCorp, Ferris Research, Osterman Research, Orthogonal Thinking, Native Trust, Elgan Media, Petri, Cyren, Agari, Webroot, HP, HPE, NetApp on Forbes and CIO.com. Bizarrely, his ridiculous work has even won awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors, ABM/Jesse H. Neal, and B2B Magazine.

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