AirTags are small circular tags very well designed by Apple that allow you to find your belongings. In principle, and even in practice, this is a very successful and interesting value proposition for many airheads. But for others, it could also be a simple way to spy on those around you discreetly.
Indeed, thanks to the Bluetooth chip integrated into an AirTag, you can locate your position almost anywhere and anytime. You see it coming: this is a dream boon for those hoping to track their loved ones behind their backs. But to fight against this practice (yes, Apple has thought of it), there isa notification that alerts you if this is the case. For theWashington Postof Jeff Bezos, however, this is not enough.
Critique
Indeed, by testing this security feature, journalists from the American media were able to note that the alarm in question only started to sound after… 3 days. According to Kaiann Drance, an Apple executive who has already had the opportunity to explain on this subject, this is a nuance intended to avoid false positives. This way, if a member of your family takes your backpack – with an AirTag in it, therefore – by mistake, there will be no domestic drama.
Except that this is precisely where there is a problem. Indeed, as Geoffrey Fowler points out in his article, victims of harassment in fact often live with their tormentor. By returning home every evening, they give them the possibility of deactivating the alarm even before a third of the time necessary for it to go off. To do this, the owner of the AirTag only needs to be near it.
Another concern: the sound emitted by the notification, precisely. Lasting only fifteen seconds, it would not exceed sixty decibels at nearly a meter distance: “no louder than the birds singing outside the window“. Especially since after this alert, a three-hour break takes place before the next one. Furthermore, it would be enough to apply a little pressure on the AirTag for its speaker to be obstructed: hide it in the padding of a car seat, and that's it.
© Apple
Solutions exist
To go further, the Post suggests that Apple introduce a new option in its Find app. This would allow us to manually scan our environment on demand in order to detect the presence of unknown AirTags. Furthermore, the option which allows you to choose not to receive AirTag alerts following your movements could be protected by password. We never know how far the influence of the manipulators goes, who sometimes even have their hands on the smartphone of their prey.
Additionally, note that these privacy alarms are not compatible with Android. An update allowing this therefore seems necessary, given thatit is already possible to find the owner of a lost AirTag from a mobile running Google OS.
