Apple’s AirTags are again making headlines for being involved in a stalking incident. According to a report from local news outlet WGRZ, officers from the West Seneca Police Department in New York are warning that AirTags have been involved in a pair of alleged stalking cases over the last month…
In the first instance, which occurred last month, a woman went to the West Seneca Police Department after her iPhone presented a notification about an AirTag found moving with her. In this situation, officers found an AirTag “under the bumper of the woman’s vehicle.”
“A female came in and she got this message notification on her phone that there was an Apple AirTag or device moving with her, so she came to the station,” West Seneca Lieutenant Jonathan Luterek said.
Luterek says officers found an AirTag under the bumper of the woman’s vehicle.
In the second instance this week, a different woman received the same notification on her iPhone. She then went to the police department, but officers were unable to locate an AirTag.
“Officers checked over her car pretty thoroughly and weren’t able to locate it. It disconnected shortly after, so at this point it’s really unknown if it was on the vehicle, or if her phone got alerted about something nearby,” Luterek said.
Officers do not believe the two cases are connected and say there is no reason to panic, but they do want to raise awareness.
West Seneca Police say they have subpoenaed records from Apple to help them find out who was trying to track the woman last month.
9to5Mac’s Take
The most important thing to keep in mind here is that AirTags privacy features seem to be working as expected in these situations. In both instances, the women were alerted about a potential AirTag potential being nearby. This is an added precaution that other similar GPS trackers don’t offer.
The biggest issue seems to be that these notifications don’t provide enough context for locating the AirTag. Theoretically, Apple should be able to provide that additional context in the notifications to make it easier to locate unknown AirTags.
Read more:
- YouTuber sends AirTag to Tim Cook, and Apple returns it with a letter
- Stalking concerns raised as person finds AirTag hidden under the wheel well on her car
- Apple alleviates Android user concerns with ‘Tracker Detect’ app to locate nearby AirTags
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