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Privacy

Are Apple AirTags Being Used To Track People and Steal Cars? (nytimes.com) 72

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Privacy groups sounded alarms about the coin-sized location-tracking devices when they were introduced. Now people are concerned those fears are being realized. From a report: On a Sunday night in September, Ashley Estrada was at a friend's home in Los Angeles when she received a strange notification on her iPhone: "AirTag Detected Near You." An AirTag is a 1.26-inch disc with location-tracking capabilities that Apple started selling earlier this year as a way "to keep track of your stuff." Ms. Estrada, 24, didn't own one, nor did the friends she was with. The notification on her phone said the AirTag had first been spotted with her four hours earlier. A map of the AirTag's history showed the zigzag path Ms. Estrada had driven across the city while running errands. "I felt so violated," she said. "I just felt like, who's tracking me? What was their intent with me? It was scary."

Ms. Estrada is not alone in her experience. In recent months, people have posted on TikTok, Reddit and Twitter about finding AirTags on their cars and in their belongings. There is growing concern that the devices may be abetting a new form of stalking, which privacy groups predicted could happen when Apple introduced the devices in April. The New York Times spoke with seven women who believe they were tracked with AirTags, including a 17-year-old whose mother surreptitiously placed one on her car to stay apprised of her whereabouts. Some authorities have began to take a closer look at the threat posed by AirTags. The West Seneca Police Department in New York recently warned its community of the tracking potential of the devices after an AirTag was found on a car bumper. Apple complied with a subpoena for information about the AirTag in the case, which may lead to charges, West Seneca police said. And in Canada, a local police department said that it had investigated five incidents of thieves placing AirTags on "high-end vehicles so they can later locate and steal them." Researchers now believe AirTags, which are equipped with Bluetooth technology, could be revealing a more widespread problem of tech-enabled tracking.
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Are Apple AirTags Being Used To Track People and Steal Cars? More

Are Apple AirTags Being Used To Track People and Steal Cars?

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  • The tech confuses me here (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @04:54PM (#62129153)

    To work, this Bluetooth device must be picked up by an Apple device with location services active, that sends that location data back to Apple along with a device UID. Fine so far.

    But... unless you work at Apple, don't you need a registered Apple account to have that information forwarded to you? Doesn't that make it a bit easier to find out who stole your car?

    I guess we start sweeping our cars and belongings for rogue Bluetooth beacons just in case. For a car with Bluetooth already built in, that should be a firmware update, otherwise maybe a phone app.

    Start your car, it tells you that it's found a new Bluetooth device it doesn't recognize. Stop it, it tells you the new device is still with you. You then either ID it as an approved device so it's ignored from then on, or you start looking for the tracking device and maybe notify the cops.

    • But... unless you work at Apple, don't you need a registered Apple account to have that information forwarded to you?

      You get that anyone can just go into a store and get one of those for free with any Apple product, right?

      And also, no, you're wrong that you need to either have that or be an Apple employee. You just need to be friends with (or otherwise able to leverage) an Apple employee

      • Which means the Apple employee gets in huge trouble, is forced to narc on you, etc.

        These are very easy cases for police to prosecute, assuming Apple complies wirth search warrants, so I predict that the fad of putting airtags in cars you want to steal will go away very very son.

      • You get that anyone can just go into a store and get one of those for free with any Apple product, right?

        No not really, because not matter how you get one, you still have to pair it with an iPhone that is logged into iCloud in order to get updates from it.

        Also no Apple devices being sold that I know of come with free AirTags.

    • ... or maybe you just don't realize the unspoken security issue about there being no user authentication, so literally any Apple account holder can track literally any AirTag at any time while leaving them no evidence or recourse?

    • I dunno but I think you'd think differently about this if you had a daughter and you had just found out that a local registered sex offender had slipped one into her school backpack.

    • Should be a relatively simple software solution for iOS to block location services from sending info to an AirTag that you don't control. Really should be an AirTag app instead of just a piece in FindMy for more fine-grained control of these things. Potential problems: enough people turn off location to other tags so it becomes less useful, and Apple bails on the tech. Wouldn't be their first (iPod HiFi, anyone?). Won't be their last.

  • The New York Times spoke with seven women who believe they were tracked with AirTags, including a 17-year-old whose mother surreptitiously placed one on her car to stay apprised of her whereabouts.

    This just in legally responsible adult tags dependent child.

    • No kidding. Better quote would be "Car's legal owner tracks its location."

      • Which according to the way it's written, the car is owned by the 17 year old.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jeremyp ( 130771 )

          Is it normal in the USA for seventeen year olds still living with their parents to legally own their cars in their own name?

          • "in their own name"

            Don't know about it now, but my daughter saved money for a car since she was about 8 and bought one when she was 16. We paid for insurance and license, but the car was in her name.

    • I'm not even sure why this was included in the article. Seventeen is a minor and the parent has every right to track their child's whereabouts.And the idiot who commented about, "...a controlling **** of a parent..." is clearly a minor who has bad parents.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @05:00PM (#62129175)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Poor wildlife [youtu.be]!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Stick it onto one of the FBIs pool vehicles. They really, Really, REALLY don't like being followed by unknown dickheads.

    • Hand it to a police officer. It will eventually end up at a local precinct. I would love to see the car thieves even TRY to steal a car from there.

    • Could also be interesting to attach it to some wildlife.

      You need wildlife that regularly gets within Bluetooth range of an iPhone. Maybe an urban seagull or pigeon?

  • But I think that it doesn't work without google apps because it hasn't detected any tags in the few weeks that I had it....

  • Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies again (Score:4, Insightful)

    by timholman ( 71886 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @05:07PM (#62129207)

    The answer is "no".

    I'll believe this is really a problem when it's not being claimed on social media by people who are clearly posing for a selfie, or when someone who claims they were tracked produces the AirTag in question with the associated ID of the person it belongs to. (Your own parents don't count.)

    Anyone who owns and uses AirTags can tell you that they simply aren't that useful for continuous tracking. The updates aren't that frequent. If a stalker or a professional thief wanted to track you, it would be much simpler to purchase a GPS tracker and a burner phone with cash. These trackers are sold by a multitude of companies, come in weatherproof magnetic cases that attach under a car bumper, cost only a few dollars more than an AirTag, and will provide minute-by-minute location updates. Nor will they conveniently warn you that you are being tracked.

    • The answer is "no".

      "Nobody is doing X" seems like quite the assertion on a planet with billions of people.

      • "Being used to steal cars" does not seem to be happening, because pretty much every story I've seen indicates that the cars were not actually stolen. Some dumb kid got some airtags, saw a cool car, and left them on it. Stalking probably is happening, but Airtags aren't actually that useful for stalking, and it's a lot easier to prosecute the owners of an Apple account associated with an Airtag than it is to prosecute most stalkers.

        • You don't need ID to create an Apple account, just a credit card. If you're dealing with car thieves, the CC could be stolen or prepaid anyway.

          • Think about the number of theft-related rolls you have to pass to make a criminal scheme work. Stolen cards are a problem. You have to not be caught stealing the card, not get caught using the stolen card to purchase Apple shit, then not be caught stealing the car, not be caught fencing the car, etc. Even if each of these is a 95% of success you only have an 81% chance of getting all four, since you're gonna need a new Apple account.card each time you do it you're gonna be fairly lucky if you make it four c

            • I really hope that Apple (or anyone else) doesn't restrict cards to KYC requirements or require ID ... it will affect privacy for those who need burner phones for other reasons. I honestly don't think that saving a few richie-poos from having their cars stolen is worth the tradeoff.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dougmc ( 70836 )

          "Being used to steal cars" does not seem to be happening, because pretty much every story I've seen indicates that the cars were not actually stolen

          Well, to be fair, if the car was stolen the victim probably wouldn't even know that there was an airtag involved, because all the evidence is gone.

          That said, I still suspect that their use for auth theft is being blown out of proportion, because it's not like you need to tag a nice car to steal it later -- just go looking for nice cars that you can steal *now*. Or if you do see a car that you want to steal, just look up the plates and see where it's likely to be parked tonight (license tags are often easy

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It just takes an urban environment where lots of people use iPhones for these trackers to be very effective and provide near-real-time tracking.

      Law enforcement in the Greater Toronto Area here in Canada is seeing these Airtags being used to track down luxury vehicles back to the owner's property to steal the vehicle later. Yes, this is REALLY happening.

      Also, the stalking stuff that is a serious threat to vulnerable women is REALLY happening.

      Posting as Anonymous because I am not permitted to make statements

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      AirTags have a few advantages over a GPS tracker. They are much cheaper, and don't require recovering or an active cellular data contact to work.

      30 seconds with a drill takes out the speaker. If it's attached to a car the "this tag is following you" warning won't trigger because people spend most of their lives away from their cars.

      Apple accounts can be created with just an email address.

      They are the ideal tool for stealing cars, or stalking people.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tomz16 ( 992375 )

        warning won't trigger because people spend most of their lives away from their cars.

        Or simply don't have an iPhone (like the MAJORITY of people in the USA, and the VAST MAJORITY of people on this planet). So what about an android user being tracked by an airtag?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          So what about an android user being tracked by an airtag?

          Get the Android app that Apple released to detect if there are any AirTags in your vicinity.

          Apple has made AirTags useless for theft because if you have an iPhone, it warns you if you're being followed by unattached AirTags.

          If you're an Android user, scanning for AirTags will alert you as well because AirTags are useless to Android users, so no Android user should have any AirTags. Apple users might have AirTags so it needs to determine whether the A

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            The Android app is shit. You have to open it and manually scan, it doesn't do it automatically for you. How many people are going to remember to do that, if they even know that the app exists?

            And what about Tile trackers? Or all the other ones on the market?

            Apple can work with other companies, like they worked with Google for COVID contact detection systems. They could have done the same here, made sure that updates were made to Android to detect this kind of abuse, just like they were made to iOS.

            In the me

      • AirTags have a few advantages over a GPS tracker. They are much cheaper, and don't require recovering or an active cellular data contact to work.

        30 seconds with a drill takes out the speaker. If it's attached to a car the "this tag is following you" warning won't trigger because people spend most of their lives away from their cars.

        Apple accounts can be created with just an email address.

        They are the ideal tool for stealing cars, or stalking people.

        And of course what you failed to acknowledge is that the Ai

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It only warns you if you have an iPhone. Most people don't have iPhones. And even then it doesn't work if you attach it to the victim's car.

  • Since a thief will be warned if they've just stolen an AirTag along with whatever else they were after.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jeremyp ( 130771 )

      Air tags aren't designed as anti theft devices. They exist purely to stop you from losing stuff.

  • Next you'll tell us that blackmailers use the telephone system and people send ransom notes via mail.
    ANYTHING can be used to commit a crime.

  • Doesn't sound like a lot to me. But the press always magnifies problems, because it leads to clicks.

  • Again? (Score:3)

    by suss ( 158993 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @05:42PM (#62129305)

    https://apple.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]

  • I know everybody here hates Apple but this is like the second or third time this story this is posted here. Can't you guys find something else awful that Apple is doing? ... like Apple triggering Apple haters into spasms of uncontrollable apoplectic rage by the evil practice of putting their company logo in places where Apple haters can see it?

    • Nearly unrepairable devices that are a major contribution to e-waste. giving customers a false sense of security. Forcing all of them to use Safari. stealing screen real estate the customer paid for, for unnecessary "notches" Not supporting industry standards in several areas.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shmlco ( 594907 )

        "stealing screen real estate the customer paid for, for unnecessary "notches""

        Seriously? How about "recovering screen real estate by expanding the screen into the area formerly taken up by bezels"?

        And what industry standards?

    • You're new here so we'll forgive your naiveté. Yes. We have to post about Apple as many times as possible on the same story until it gets traction, outrage and all-important link clicks . . .

      We must also get micro-updates on every time Elon Musk or Steve Wozniak blows their nose or we get the DTs.

  • I mean, nobody saw this coming, right?

    • I always thought that the reverse would be a good use for air tags... Tag your own car to be able to find it in case of theft. Hide the tag inside the dash, connected to the main battery. If your car gets stolen, you can pinpoint it's position and notify police - same as lojack. The tags are small enough that they could have been useful to track the black Friday best buy smash and grab offenders.

  • "Are Apple AirTags Being Used To Track People and Steal Cars?"

    God, I certainly hope so.

  • MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE (Score:3)

    by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @06:46PM (#62129515) Homepage Journal

    The airtag literally tells every phone it gets near that there is a tag nearby asking to be tracked.

    What's the issue here again? OH RIGHT. MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE.

  • Oh for crying out loud... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @07:02PM (#62129571)

    You could do the exact same thing with Tile trackers before Apple released the AirTags. Samsung have their own equivalent called a Galaxy SmartTag. Hop on Amazon, and you find other brands that don't just use the occasional Bluetooth ping, but actually have cellular modems built in for tower triangulation positioning and real-time tracking. Pay a bit more, and you can even get actual GPS as well.

    But Apple releases AirTags and suddenly the same technology (Less capable, BTW, than the ones with GPS and GSM built-in.) their version is this evil enabler of stalking, criminality, and 1984-esque oppression. I know this is Slashdot, home of "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." But seriously... can you get any more blatant with the hypocrisy and double standards?

    All it is is a more expensive Tile with the Apple logo on it and a nicer app.

    • All it is is a more expensive Tile with the Apple logo on it and a nicer app.

      The major difference been AirTags, and other similar devices is the coverage - the number of devices that will detect it and report it's location back to "HQ". Only Tile users (or non-users who have installed the Tile app) will handshake with a tile and report it's location back to TileHQ. Other similar Bluetooth trackers similarly rely on other phones having their specific app installed. AirTags on the other hand, are detected by any active iPhone. The coverage is vastly different.

  • Cops, PI's, jealous spouses, etc have put GPS trackers on cars since...the 80's. Hell, my newest car has an app which will tell you where the car is at all times and show you on a map. We call it the "mistress tracker", and our biggest use is to determine when to order take out when the distant spouse is on the way home.

  • Apple really screwed up here.
    (Interesting to read all the Apple fanbois with the usual excuses... "everybody does it", "what do you have to hide", "stupid users don't know how to use tech"... etc.)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I am a little confused, surely airtags don't let anyone except the owner view data of where the airtag has been? usrely not even Apple is THAT bad at security?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jeremyp ( 130771 )

      AirTags don't let even the owner know where they have been. All you know about them is where they are now - or more accurately, where the last iPhone that pinged them was when it made contact.

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