AirTags are, again, accused of violating privacy. The location tag developed by Apple is in the sights of a complaint filed Monday, December 5 in federal court in San Francisco. Two women accuse their ex-companion of having used the tracer to follow their movements, without their knowledge. The complainants believe that the device put them in danger, indicates CNN, which relays the information.
Repeated tracking
The ex-boyfriend of an alleged victim is said to have repeatedly harassed his ex-partner. For obvious security reasons, the complainant then decided to stay in a hotel. As she arrives in front of the establishment, she receives a notification telling her that an AirTag is tracking her location. After some research, she discovers the bug in a bag stuck in the fender of her vehicle. After her move, the man would have continued to follow her using another unidentified AirTag. He would then have posted a photograph of his neighborhood on social networks, with the hashtag “airt2.0“, states the complaint.
Intrigued by her ex-husband’s recurring questions about his movements, the second victim says he found an AirTag in his child’s backpack. After removing the device, the mother of the family found a second AirTag in the same place a few days later.
“Mrs. Doe [nom d’emprunt pour l’enquête, NDLR] continues to fear for her safety — at a minimum, her stalker has demonstrated a willingness to continue using AirTags to track, harass, and threaten her, and continues to use AirTags to find the Complainant’s location. [Elle] seeks to bring this action anonymously due to the real risk that identifying them will put them at increased risk of harassment and/or physical harm“, details the document consulted by our colleagues.
A network of millions of devices
With this class action, the two plaintiffs intend to seek justice for those “who have been and are at risk of being harassed by this dangerous product.” As a reminder, the AirTag uses the “Locate” network, which includes several hundred million Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods…). The tracer emits a Bluetooth signal detectable by all devices of the American manufacturer. When a device is near the AirTag, the tracker connects and all location data is transferred to the iCloud account linked to the object. Location accuracy and recurrence is entirely dependent on the density of nearby Apple devices.
Apple’s chip was originally marketed for finding lost items. AirTags are sometimes used by families to track someone with Alzheimer’s.
After a beginning of controversy at the beginning of the year, Apple had reacted to the diversion of these objects for malicious purposes. “The AirTag was designed to help people locate their belongings, not to track the people or property of others, and we strongly condemn any misuse of our products.“, reacted the group.
Apple has since introduced a new feature to detect an unknown AirTag nearby. A notification is issued after some time for the only owners… of an iPhone. For consumers with other smartphones, spotting the spy is much more complex.