According to reports from across the country, skeeves and rapists are using Apple AirTags to track and stalk women.
Nice going, Apple.
AirTags are supposed to be used to help users keep tabs on things like lost keys, luggage, or computers. If you need to find something you misplaced, an AirTag including in the item helps users find them using the tracking device.
But it appears that some creeps are using the AirTags for nefarious purposes.
Vice found about 150 reports from eight U.S. police departments within the last eight months that mentioned AirTags. Of the 150 reports, 50 of them reportedly involved women who alerted police after they started getting notifications that they were being tracked by an AirTag they didn’t own.
The magazine added that 25 of those reports ID’d “a man in their lives — ex-partners, husbands, bosses — who they strongly suspected planted the AirTags on their cars in order to follow and harass them.”
Per The Blaze:
In one case, a woman called the police after a man who had been harassing her placed an AirTag in her car and threatened to make her life hell. In another case, a woman reported to police that her ex had slashed her car’s tires and left an AirTag in the vehicle to monitor her whereabouts. In yet another case, a woman reported that she started noticing something beeping inside her vehicle every time she left her house. Later, when she confronted an ex of hers, he admitted to placing an AirTag in her car to see if she was “cheating.”
Other examples included revelations of exes or controlling partners mysteriously showing up at the same places as the women. In many instances, the women reportedly feared they would be the victims of physical violence.
AirTags have also been used by carjackers who use them to tag cars they want to follow home for later theft.
For its part, Apple claims it is working with police and safety groups to address the propensity of people misusing their device.
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Tags: AirTags Apple Commentary crime
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