In a few short years, Bluetooth trackers have gone from a new product category to part of daily life for many people, in no small part because of theAirTag. Apple is an expert at selling people on the benefits of itsecosystem, and speaking as an owner of several AirTags myself, they really are effortless to use apart from the annoyance of swapping out their batteries at least once a year. It’s best not to go overboard on tracking for that reason.
Privacy, naturally, is one of the things you should be most concerned about with any tracker. It’s one thing to let advertisers know what city you live in – it’s another for a device to be following your keys, gym bag, or even your car wherever you go. Here’s what you need to know about the safety of AirTags, including some things Apple doesn’t tell you on its website.
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Apple’s security measures for AirTags
Anti-stalking tech and more
The first thing to be aware of is how AirTags work most of the time. While they supportultra-wideband(UWB) tracking at close range – a feature known as Precision Finding – most of the time, they’re broadcasting occasional Bluetooth “pings,” which are picked up by iPhones, iPads, and Macs signed into Apple’sFind Mynetwork, whether they belong to you or not. That data is then uploaded to Apple servers so it can reach you via the Find My app and website. That might sound scary at first, but the pings are anonymized, and the Find My network uses end-to-end encryption. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to intercept useful data directly, including Apple.
Moreover, the accuracy of Bluetooth tracking depends on how many Apple devices are around and when an AirTag was last able to ping one. If you drop your keys in Times Square, you’re going to get a relatively precise location, because there are almost certainly dozens of Apple devices passing by every minute. If you drop those keys during a hike in rural Colorado, it could be hours or days before someone with an iPhone passes by to update location info – in the interim, you’ll just see the last place your own iPhone detected them.
People can and have used AirTags to stalk people, since it’s relatively easy to slip them into the crevices of clothes, bags, vehicles, and other objects. For a short while, this made AirTags extremely controversial, although Apple has always been able to use the serial number and Apple Account associated with an AirTag to help police investigations. The situation improved, thankfully, when Apple collaborated with Google on building anti-stalking features into both iOS/iPadOS and Android.
In the case of a suspicious AirTag, be sure to document everything.
The result is that if any Bluetooth tracker is following you without its owner, you should see a notification on your iPhone, iPad, or Android. AirTags, at least, should also play a sound, and if you receive a notification about a tracker, the Find My app will display options to play that sound again and/or initiate Precision Finding (when available). Be aware that some stalkers are smart enough to break the speaker on a tracker before planting it – so if Precision Finding isn’t possible, you’ll have to search the hard way.
If you do encounter an unknown AirTag, you can hold any NFC-equipped phone up to it to get its serial number and the last four digits of its owner’s phone number. If it’s marked as lost, you should also see a message from its owner, presumably with further contact info.
In the case of a suspicious AirTag, be sure to document everything – that includes not just the info above, but when and where you found it, and any path history shown in Find My. Take photos and screenshots you can hand over to police. Once that’s done, though, be sure to disable the AirTag by opening it up and removing its battery. You should also probably move to a safe location, since there’s no telling if the stalker will come by to investigate.
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Should I still be worried about AirTag security?
What Apple doesn’t say, and the final verdict
As you may have gathered, the threat of AirTag stalking is low, but still non-zero. Yes, your iPhone, iPad, or Android device should notify you if you’re being followed by an unknown tracker, but a particularly aggressive stalker might be close and fast enough to reach you before you respond. If you see a tracker notification on your phone, take it seriously.
You should also be judicious about sharing AirTag locations with friends, family, or partners via Find My. Usually, of course, these are people you can trust – but if they turn abusive or controlling, remember to revoke their access right away. Always think twice about sharing with someone you’ve only recently met, no matter how well you’re getting along.
If you’re prepared for all of this, you should feel fairly confident about using AirTags.
As for other parties intercepting your data, the main thing you have to worry about is someone hijacking your Apple Account. If they can discover or brute-force your login info, they can access Find My, and pinpoint the location of every item listed – not just your AirTags. Because of this, it’s essential to use a complex password, and avoid sharing your login with anyone you wouldn’t trust with your life. You might want to avoid using Find My at all if there’s a risk an authoritarian government might seize you and your devices to hunt down loved ones.
Be mindful of physical device security, too. Any device logged into Find My should have a passcode or password enabled, and be set to auto-lock after a set duration, the shorter the better (within reason). That second step might feel like overkill, but if a device is snatched from you before you can manually lock it, they may have free rein in Find My (and other apps) long enough to do damage. At your workplace, someone could wander by your empty office, scour Find My on your iPhone or computer, then disappear before you’ve returned from the bathroom.
If you’re prepared for all of this, though, you should feel fairly confident about using AirTags. You are opening a new realm of concerns – but the same is true of any device that talks to the internet, and most of us aren’t about to go live in a shack in the woods because of our phones and smart bulbs.
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