The size of a coin, these devices can be hidden in a person’s belongings in order to follow them without their knowledge.
Do not be fooled by their small size. AirTags, gadgets no bigger than a coin, developed by Apple to geolocate your belongings, can carry great risks. Since their marketing in 2021, testimonials from women victims of harassment have highlighted the role of these objects, diverted from their initial use for criminal and criminal purposes. Dhe new testimonies have recently been shared on social networks. Franceinfo returns to this phenomenon and the means of protecting against it.
How do these highly criticized tracers work?
Who has never cursed like a bunch of keys that can’t be found or fears that their bag will be stolen from the hold of a coach? Originally designed for the dizzy and anxious, AirTags make it possible to follow in real time the objects on which they are stuck, thanks to Bluetooth technology which connects the small tracer to the “Locate” application of the smartphone.
However, as soon as it was released in 2021, Internet users said on social networks that they were victims of misuse of the gadget. In November 2021, a user caused a lot of reaction after posting a video on TikTok in which she claimed to have been followed from one end of the United States to the other, without being able to get her hands on the cookie or deactivate it. . In early 2022, American supermodel Brooke Nader said on Instagram that she found an AirTag in her coat pocket after going out to a bar in New York.
In France, a surfer told in turn, Monday on Twitterhaving been monitored in Paris via this procedure. “Fbe super careful with the AirTags, they put one on me in the 16th [arrondissement] a few days ago, and this is my friend who just found one on her on her way home from the gym”, she wrote.
How do you know if you are being followed?
The people concerned say they received a notification on their own phone (iPhone type, marketed by Apple) explaining to them that a foreign device had been tracking their movements for some time. “Apple has considered this use of its gadget and has therefore put in place protective proceduresreported the news site Slate in July 2021. If it has been more than eight hours since the AirTag has been near its referent iPhone, it will beep for fifteen seconds, thus warning of its presence.
On its site, Apple explains how to activate this feature, one of those “created specifically to prevent anyone from tracking you without your knowledge.” Issue : it’s only available on iOS or iPadOS 14.5 and later, excluding older devices, according to two women who filed suit against Apple in California.
It also happens that this functionality is faulty, as testified by Alison Carney, in June 2022. The American singer, who confided in AFP in February, claims to have never received the alert from the manufacturer. By discovering the AirTag in her bag, she then understood how her ex-partner was able to burst into her house in the middle of the night or even surprise her at the restaurant without her having informed him of her plans.
As for owners of Android phones, they can only detect the cookie if they download the Tracker detection application, which is able to locate an AirTag or an accessory from the Locate network that travels with you without its owner. But that implies carrying out the process yourself. “Does Apple expect Android users to spend their days constantly checking that they are not being tracked?”lamented Albert Cahn, researcher at Harvard University and director general of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, quoted by AFP.
How to react if this happens to you?
Matthieu Audibert, gendarme and doctoral student in private law and criminal sciences, detailed on Tuesday in a Twitter thread the instructions. “If you discover one placed on you, do not throw it away, do not remove the battery. If you are at home, get out quickly and file a complaint”he suggests. “It is possible to trace back to the owner”he adds, while specifying that this type of fact can constitute an offense defined by article 226-1 of the Penal Code.
The article in question, in force since the summer of 2020, explains that a person “capturing, recording or transmitting, by any means whatsoever, the real-time or delayed location of a person without the latter’s consent” is liable to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros, on the grounds that this gesture violates the privacy of others. “When the facts are committed by the spouse or partner of the victim (…) the penalties are increased to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 60,000 euros.”
On its website, Apple recalls that the disabling the device’s Find My network, Bluetooth, or iPhone’s location service “will not prevent the owner of the AirTag, AirPods or accessory from the Find Network from seeing the location of that accessory or AirTag”. Only deactivating the AirTag allows this.
Is it possible to identify the person following you?
Yes, provided you have the AirTag serial number. However, to do this, you must remain connected to the device that is tracking you. Clearly, it is necessary as soon as possible to go to a police station. “An AirTag can disconnect remotely and if so, it is impossible to know who owns it”, underlines the journalist of France inter Manon Mariani, in a column devoted to the difficulty of dealing with this type of case. If the device has been disconnected, filing a complaint will however allow Apple to find the identity of the owner of the account attached to the AirTag found, using the famous serial number.
“If the AirTag holder’s number is saved in your phonebook, you will have access to their identity”also mentions Manon Mariani. It is indeed common for the AirTag to have been hidden by someone close to him, noted in February Robert Reeves, spokesman for the police in the small Texas town of Irving, north of Dallas. Asked after a new case, he told AFP that his police station had already dealt with various cases concerning the accessory and where the victim knew his follower.
In Indiana, a woman is accused of having killed her boyfriend after tracking his position using an AirTag, suspecting him of cheating on her, according to court documents consulted by AFP and as reported in particular by the American channel ABC. On the UK side, a jealous man was sentenced to nine weeks in prison for hiding an AirTag in his ex-girlfriend’s car to spy on and harass her, reported in August 2022 the DailyMail.
How do manufacturers respond to these excesses?
Faced with these personal security problems, Apple and Google proposed, on May 2, a new technical standard making it possible to harmonize the specificities of Bluetooth beacons from other companies, in order to alert the people being followed, regardless of the system used. operating their smartphone.
Samsung, Tile and other similar gadget makers “expressed their support” to this industry standard, according to a joint statement from Apple and Google. Recognizing that these Bluetooth devices “can also potentially be used to track people without their knowledge”, Dave Burke, vice president of engineering for Android, quoted in the press release, points to a problem “that it is up to the whole industry to solve”.