The Washington Post has suggested that security measures on Apple’s new AirTags “aren’t sufficient,” reporting their concerns over the potential of them being used for stalking.
Journalist Geoffrey Fowler conducted an experiment, having an AirTag planted on him and having a colleague pretend to stalk him. He concluded that AirTags are a “new means of inexpensive, effective stalking,” revealing that it took three days for AirTag to play a sound, which lasted for just 15 seconds, and that he also received alerts on his iPhone days later.
Speaking of his experiment, Fowler said: “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.”
At the time of AirTags’ launch, Apple said that the product contained an “industry-first, strong set of proactive deterrents,” and added that Apple had “a smart and tunable system, and we can continue improving the logic and timing so that we can improve the set of deterrents.”
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