(I tried to find a funny "Apple / Mark of the Beast" thumbnail, but it was just depressing because those people aren't joking.) Unfortunately like the discreet Tile product they're modeled on, AirTags sound like a gift from Apple to stalkers and people who'd use them to track the location and movements of unsuspecting victims. For the one in four U.S. women experiencing domestic violence the chime of a found AirTag would be the sound of a nightmare becoming reality. [...]
Essentially, an item in iPhone's Safety Alerts section will let you know when a creep slips an AirTag into your bag, in your car, or any hidden spot in which a physical location tracker could hide. This is an industry first: no other location tracker notifies unsuspecting victims they've been targeted for nonconsensual tracking.
According to Apple's Newsroom release, "iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn't with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time." That's because Apple designed AirTag to frequently rotate the Bluetooth signal identifiers they transmit. So when the identifiers don't add up, Apple goes into "something is wrong" mode.
The invention of a costly free-range dongle with no device to attach to marks the apotheosis of a 30-year arc in Apple product design.
Update: Yeah, no.
Now that people are trying out Apple’s AirTags IRL, we’re finding out they are truly a gift to stalkers and abusers. It takes three days before they alert people they’re being tracked (so someone may never know), victims with Android phones are shit out of luck, and disabling the alert sound isn’t hard. Those anti-stalking features they told us about at release quite literally only looked good on paper.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
