AirTag Anti-Stalking Measures 'Just Aren't Sufficient' Says Washington Post Report

The safeguards that Apple built into AirTags to prevent them from being used to track someone "just aren't sufficient," The Washington Post's Geoffrey Fowler said today in a report investigating how ‌AirTags‌ can be used for covert stalking.

airtag 1
Fowler planted an AirTag on himself and teamed up with a colleague to be pretend stalked, and he came to the conclusion that the ‌AirTags‌ are a "new means of inexpensive, effective stalking."

Apple's safeguards include privacy alerts to let iPhone users know that an unknown AirTag is traveling with them and may be in their belongings, along with regular sound alerts when an AirTag has been separated from its owner for three days.

Fowler said that over a week of tracking, he received alerts both from the hidden AirTag and from his ‌iPhone‌. After three days, the AirTag being used to stalk Fowler played a sound, but it was "just 15 seconds of light chirping" that measured in at about 60 decibels. It played for 15 seconds at a time, went silent for several hours, then chirped for another 15 seconds, and it was easy to muffle by applying pressure to the top of the AirTag.

The three-day countdown timer resets after it comes in contact with the owner's ‌iPhone‌, so if the person being stalked lives with their stalker, the sound might not ever activate.

airtag privacy alert
Fowler also received regular alerts about an unknown AirTag moving with him from his ‌iPhone‌, but pointed out those alerts aren't available to Android users. He also said that Apple does not provide enough help locating a nearby AirTag since it can only be tracked by sound, a feature that didn't often work.

I got multiple alerts: from the hidden AirTag and on my iPhone. But it wasn't hard to find ways an abusive partner could circumvent Apple's systems. To name one: The audible alarm only rang after three days -- and then it turned out to be just 15 seconds of light chirping. And another: While an iPhone alerted me that an unknown AirTag was moving with me, similar warnings aren't available for the roughly half of Americans who use Android phones.

The planted AirTag on Fowler kept his colleague well-updated with his location information, updating once every few minutes with a range of around half a block. While Fowler was at home, the AirTag reported his exact location, all using his own devices thanks to Apple's Find My network.

The ‌Find My‌ network is designed to make it easier to find a lost Apple device or item attached to an AirTag by utilizing hundreds of millions of active Apple products around the world. If you lose an AirTag and someone else's device picks it up, the lost AirTag's location is relayed back to you, and this also applies to ‌AirTags‌ tracking people.

Apple's vice president of ‌iPhone‌ marketing Kaiann Drance told The Washington Post that the safeguards built into the ‌AirTags‌ are an "industry-first, strong set of proactive deterrents." She went on to explain that ‌AirTags‌ anti-tracking measures can be bolstered over time. "It's a smart and tunable system, and we can continue improving the logic and timing so that we can improve the set of deterrents."

She also commented on some of the safeguards. Apple chose a three day timeline before an AirTag starts playing a sound because the company "wanted to balance how these alerts are going off in the environment as well as the unwanted tracking." Drance declined to say whether Apple had consulted domestic abuse experts when creating the ‌AirTags‌, but she said that Apple is "open to hearing anything from those organizations."

Fowler admits that Apple has done more to prevent ‌AirTags‌ from being used for stalking than other Bluetooth tracking device competitors like Tile, but there are still concerns that need to be addressed. Fowler's full report that goes into more detail on how he mimicked being stalked and the shortcomings that he found in the ‌AirTags‌ can be found over at The Washington Post.

Related Forum: AirTags

Top Rated Comments

cmaier Avatar
34 months ago
It’s easy to muffle while pressing the top! (Um, who is pressing the top to muffle the sound while this attempted stalking is happening. I am very confused)
Score: 72 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheLinkster Avatar
34 months ago
Sounds like Bezos is prepping his own product.
Score: 70 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
34 months ago
This is one of those things where after hearing forever that Apple isn't the first to make a device, they're now the ones being pilloried for it simply because they tried a little harder to help and fell short of perfect, right?
Score: 70 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PatrickCocoa Avatar
34 months ago
The Washington Post doesn't like AirTags? Great, now I have to buy AirTags.
Score: 67 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Martinpa Avatar
34 months ago
I'm going on a hunt for a similar article from around the time the first generation Tile came out... don't wait for me...
Score: 67 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonproject Avatar
34 months ago
Remember all the great anti-tracking features Tile had? No? Oh...
Score: 58 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

iOS 17.2 Will Add These 12 New Features to Your iPhone

Friday December 1, 2023 12:19 pm PST by
iOS 17.2 has been in beta testing for over a month, and it should be released to all users in a few more weeks. The software update includes many new features and changes for iPhones, including the dozen that we have highlighted below. iOS 17.2 is expected to be released to the public in mid-December. To learn about even more features coming in the update, check out our full list. Journal ...
anker new xmas 1

Anker's Cyber Week Sale Enters Final Days With Up to 60% Off Sitewide

Friday December 1, 2023 12:05 pm PST by
Anker's Black Friday/Cyber Week event is entering its final days this weekend, and it's still offering up to 60 percent off sitewide. There are also a few "mystery boxes" that can include hundreds of dollars in savings, if you're willing to risk not knowing what you're buying ahead of time. All of these sales will end on December 3. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you...
General Apps Messages

Green Bubbles on iPhone to Gain These 7 New Features Next Year

Thursday November 30, 2023 9:00 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple announced that it will finally support RCS in the Messages app on the iPhone starting later next year. This change will result in several improvements to the messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices. RCS will become the new default standard for messaging between iPhones and Android devices, but these conversations will still have green bubbles like...
top stories 2dec2023

Top Stories: iOS 17.1.2 Released, NameDrop Misinformation, and More

Saturday December 2, 2023 6:00 am PST by
Apple employees are back to work following a Thanksgiving break, and that means this week saw a number of new operating system updates for both public release and beta testing. This week also saw some misinformation about Apple's new NameDrop feature making the rounds, while Apple and Goldman Sachs appear to be on the verge of a break-up in their Apple Card and savings account partnership,...
instagram messenger

Instagram and Facebook Messenger Chats to Disconnect This Month

Tuesday December 5, 2023 1:57 am PST by
Meta has revealed plans to end Instagram users' ability to chat with Facebook accounts later this month, rolling back a feature that it introduced over three years ago. In September 2020, Meta (then Facebook) announced it was merging its Facebook Messenger service with Instagram direct messaging, allowing Instagram users to chat with Facebook users and vice versa using the same platform....
iphone 5g mmwave

Apple's Work on 6G Connectivity Already Expanding

Monday December 4, 2023 7:00 am PST by
Apple's work on implementing 6G cellular connectivity on its devices appears to be ramping up, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that Apple is increasingly turning its attention to 6G, even amid its widely reported difficulties developing a custom 5G cellular modem. In 2021, the first highly specific Apple job...