Apple Airtag

Apple’s Airtags raised a bit of a fuss when they launched earlier in 2021. Every review we saw said two things about the Airtags. One, they work great. Two, they might work too great. The problem? They seemed too easy to use to track non-consenting humans without their knowledge. Which is pretty creepy.

Fortunately, Apple listened to their users and made some quick changes to mitigate these concerns. They shorten the time it takes for an Airtag to play a sound after it is separated from its owner from three days to between 8 - 24 hours. This is great to help alert someone who might have had an Airtag slipped in a bag or car to use to stalk them. Apple also said they would release an Android app so Apple users weren’t the only ones who would get notifications if an Airtag was nearby. This is OK, although it still puts the onus on non-Apple users to download and install that app. Still, we’re glad to see Apple took people’s privacy concerns seriously and is working to make things better.

Overall, Apple does a pretty good job with privacy and security as a company. They say they don't share or sell your data and Apple takes special care to make sure your Siri requests, like asking Siri to find your wallet, aren't associated with you, which is great. Apple did face backlash in 2019 when it came to light their contractors were regularly listening in on confidential personal conversations when they were reviewing the voice assistant's recordings. Apple changed their policy so users weren't automatically opted-in to human voice review.

Apple did recently suffer a bad security vulnerability that resulted in spyware that could allow bad actors to record calls and messages and even turn an iPhone or iPad camera and microphone on without the user knowing. Apple did patch the security vulnerability. This is a good reminder that even the best companies can be vulnerable to high level hacking.

What’s the worst that could happen with Apple’s Airtags? While we’re happy to see Apple take steps to prevent them from being used to stalk or spy on people without their consent, that’s still a concern. There are sites on the internet that tell people how to disable the speaker in the Airtag so it can’t alert someone it’s been hidden in their car or purse. A bad person using an Airtag to stalk someone without them knowing is pretty dang creepy. But, that could also happen with any of the Bluetooth trackers on the market. It’s just that Apple’s Find My network is huge, with millions of users, making Airtags potentially the scariest, and the best, tracker on the market.