Apple’s AirTags, which track and trace personal property, have been embroiled in controversies over unwanted tracking. Apple therefore wishes to strengthen the security and confidentiality of its product.
Apple AirTag // Source: Unsplash Daniel Romero
Several testimonies and stories have shown that AirTags could have been used to track people without their consent. Thus, at the beginning of February, Apple announced that new measures against tracking through an AirTag were going to be put in place.
This is now done, since the latter have been added in beta 4 of iOS 15.4. They are intended to reduce the risk of unwanted tracking and harassment of one person by another.
A warning and more customization
The first addition takes the form of a very clear warning message when setting up a new AirTag:
This AirTag is exclusively designed to track items that belong to you. Using this AirTag to track people without their consent is considered a crime in many parts of the world. This AirTag is designed to be detected by victims and allow law enforcement to obtain information to identify the owner.
Along with this new message, iOS 15.4 can now notify you when an unidentified AirTag is traveling with you, much more accurately than before, where only a somewhat vague message warned of a “unknown accessory detected“.
Apple has also removed the “Object Security Alert” option found in the “Locate” settings. This prevents someone, especially a loved one, from taking the phone and deliberately deactivating the alert. In addition, it is now possible to customize the tracking notifications independently of the notifications of the “Locate” functions.
iOS 15.4 is currently only available to users of public beta versions. The final version should be available to everyone in the coming weeks.
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