Small and relatively cheap, Apple AirTags are advertised as an easy way to find misplaced items, but they’ve also been used to illegally track people.
“We’ve had about a handful of cases where someone has found an AirTag either in their personal belongings, on their vehicle, or inside their vehicle,” said Officer Robert Reeves with the Irving Police Department.
On Sunday while driving through Irving, a woman told police she received an alert on her phone that an AirTag was traveling with her.
Stunned, she drove straight to the Irving Police Department. Within 10 minutes of arriving, officers found one taped to the bottom of her car.
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“It’s an uneasy feeling,” Reeves said.
The woman told NBC 5 she has no idea how long the device had been there or who could have put it there. Detectives will now try to find who the device is registered to.
Apple AirTags
“We may be looking at an offense of either harassment or stalking which is a high misdemeanor or felony offense,” Reeves said.
On their website, Apple says AirTags are designed to discourage unwanted tracking and will send an alert if one is traveling with you.
It's unclear how long it may take to receive the AirTag notification but police say if you do – don’t ignore the alert and contact law enforcement.
Irving police say GPS tracking devices do have positives. Officers often suggest people use them to track a loved one with dementia or an elderly relative in case they go missing, but this latest case highlights the bad.
“With every piece of technology someone can use it in a positive way or someone can use it in a negative way,” Reeves said.
In a statement to NBC 5, Apple added:
"AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products. Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag. It’s why the Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why we innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking. We hope this starts an industry trend for others to also provide these sorts of proactive warnings in their products.”
On their website, the company said misuse of AirTags is rare, but they have used the unique serial numbers associated with the devices to help law enforcement identify and charge suspects.
WHAT DO I DO IF I GET AN AIRTAG ALERT?
Apple provided this link on what to do if you receive an alert that an AirTag or other Apple device is tracking you. It also includes information on phone settings in order to receive the alerts.
Click here for more information.
According to Apple, if you use an Android device, you can download the Tracker Detect app from the Google Play Store. Tracker Detect looks for item trackers within Bluetooth range that are separated from their owner and that are compatible with Apple's Find My network. These include AirTag and compatible item trackers that use the Find My network. Click here to get the Tracker Detect app.
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