Apple plans to make it difficult AirTag misuse

The button-sized devices are designed to track lost items but have been misused to track people.

Apple plans to make several changes to make AirTags more difficult to misuse to track someone.

The company said device changes could make it easier to find suspicious tags and warn users earlier that an AirTag might be travelling with them.

Apple launched AirTags in April last year. The small, circular devices can be attached to luggage or keys – anything you could lose. 

But the devices can be misused to track people by being hidden in a car, or on a personal item such as a bag.

The popular Apple AirTags are innovative and very useful when used correctly, but there are concerns that surveillance and tracking networks will affect billions.

Apple said as part of the change to make misuse more difficult, anyone setting up AirTags for the first time will be warned that it is a crime in many parts of the world to use their devices to track people without their consent.

When people are warned of “unwanted tracking” by an AirTag, users of iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 devices will be able to use “precision finding”, to see the distance and direction to an unknown AirTag when it is in range. Previously only the owner of the AirTag could do this.