There has been recent media activity around the Apple product, known as an Air Tag, being in effect used to potentially stalk people and track vehicles.
The idea of this product and others similar to this are that you can keep tabs on your possessions eg a suitcase. Button sized they are easy to attach to an object.
“If you create an item which is useful for tracking stolen items, then you have also created a perfect tool for stalking,” says Eva Galperin, Director of Cyber-Security at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “I have personally talked to several people who have found AirTags in their possession,” she says.
Apple was aware, long before it released AirTags, that they could be used for criminal activity. On releasing them, Apple said that “AirTags are designed to track items not people”.
The BBC has spoken to six women who all say they have been tracked with AirTags. One said she had found an AirTag taped to the inside of a bag. Others haven’t been able to locate the tags.
The counter-argument is that AirTags are just very good at being located by a registered iPhone. The ‘Find My’ network uses almost a billion Apple devices around the world – and their Bluetooth connectivity – to create accurate and long-range tracking.
“I want Apple to require these devices to ask permission before you can be followed,” says Anna Mahaney. “With ‘Find My Friends’, if my husband wants validation, I have to okay that and give it to him. I cannot rationalise why a stranger can follow me and I don’t have to give consent.”
The key around the AirTag is that if someone specifically leaves one in your car for example and then tracks you, permission has not been sought from either the person or who ever owns the car.
That is completely different when we, for example, install a fully authorised vehicle tracker onto a car. We would always need permission from the vehicle owner, prior to any installation taking place. Legitimate vehicle tracking can be carried out this way and often proves useful in investigations eg employee investigations where there is a company vehicle and the staff member is say not making the calls they say they are.
In this world of technology, only legitimate investigations, with the correct approval, can provide key information for the benefit of clients, helping them make more informed decisions. Anything less and the wheels come off the luggage!
Source: BBC website