Concerns are being raised on social media about the use of Apple’s AirTag device to potentially track unsuspecting women.
The concerns were triggered during a party held on Monday evening that unscrupulous people were placing the small trackers on women in attendance and in their belongings.
Wayne Walker has more.
The AirTag was devised by Apple as to keep track of easily lost items such as keys, and luggage.
The small circular disk can be attached to or placed in an item and its location can be tracked in real time.
However, it wasn’t long before more nefarious means of using the tag was discovered.
Apple devised a programme for its I-Phone Users which automatically inform them if such a tag has been tracking them.
According to one party goer she found the tag on her person after receiving the notification and quickly disposed of it.
However, another woman who attended the same event noted she was far too drunk to realize what was happening and only became aware of how serious the phone notification was hours later.
Another social media user claims to been aware of being followed by another vehicle on her way home.
However, it should be noted the alert regarding the tracker only automatically appears to individuals who use I-phones and Apples ecosystem.
Android users must download a third party program in order to be alerted.
The AirTag device was released to the market about a year ago at a cost of about 30 US dollars each.
Concerns regarding their ability to be used to track people in real time is also not new and has been a topic of debate in the United States.
The company was forced to release a statement condemning the unwanted tracking.
Apple says that’s why its Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why it innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert people of unwanted tracking.
The company says it hopes this starts an industry trend of providing these sorts of proactive warnings in their products.
According to Apple each AirTag has a unique serial number, and paired AirTags are associated with an Apple ID.
Apple says it can provide the paired account details in response to a subpoena or valid request from law enforcement.
It’s uncertain if this service extends outside of the United States.
However, Nationwide News understands the police are looking into the matter.
