Tuesday, February 21, 2023 12:02 pmTuesday, February 21, 20236 Comments

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A now ex-boyfriend who tried to track his 19-year-old girlfriend in Australia with an Apple AirTag succeeded at making her feel “sick to her stomach.”

7 News Australia:

The 19-year-old Melbourne woman said she was running errands on February 10 when she received the unusual message.

“I got a notification that an AirTag was tracking my location,” she told 7NEWS.com.au. “I was doing some shopping throughout the day and I continued to get the notifications, but I had no idea where they were coming from.”

Rachel said she felt “sick to her stomach” and tore her car apart trying to find the AirTag, a bluetooth tracking device developed by Apple that’s about the size of a 20c piece… Eventually, Rachel found the AirTag in one of her car’s wheel hubs — her boyfriend had planted it there to track her movements…

Rachel says her now ex-boyfriend has since tried to defend his actions — and blamed his behaviour on past trauma.

“He told me he had been hurt in the past and didn’t want to risk getting hurt again,” she said. “But I wasn’t buying it. I decided I needed to get out of the relationship before the behaviour continued or even escalated. It’s really just so scary to think about what could have happened or what his intentions were.”

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s AirTag includes features to guard against unwanted tracking which again worked well in this case.

You won’t get that from any other item tracker.

With any other tracker, you would be tracked for as long as the tracker remains functional without notification.

Apple AirTags are the most anti-stalking, pro-privacy, and safest trackers on the market.

Obviously, AirTags should not be used to track people without their knowledge, and should not be used to track property that does not belong to you. Using these products to track people without their consent is a crime in many countries and regions around the world. If an AirTag, set of AirPods, or Find My network accessory is discovered to be unlawfully tracking a person, law enforcement can request any available information from Apple to support their investigation.

If any AirTag, AirPods, or other Find My network accessory separated from its owner is seen moving with you over time, you’ll be notified in one of two ways. These features were created specifically to discourage people from trying to track you without your knowledge.

1. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, Find My will send a notification to your Apple device. This feature is available on iOS or iPadOS 14.5 or later. To receive alerts, make sure that you:
   • Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, and turn Location Services on.
   • Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services. Turn Find My iPhone on.
   • Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services. Turn Significant Locations on to be notified when you arrive at a significant location, such as your home.
   • Go to Settings > Bluetooth, and turn Bluetooth on.
   • Go to the Find My app, tap the Me tab, and turn Tracking Notifications on.
   • Turn off airplane mode. If your device is in airplane mode, you won’t receive tracking notifications.

2. An AirTag, AirPods Pro (2nd generation) charging case, or Find My network accessory that isn’t with its owner for a period of time will emit a sound when it’s moved.

If you’re stuck with a Android device, you can download Apple’s Tracker Detect app from the Google Play Store. Tracker Detect looks for item trackers within Bluetooth range that are separated from their owner and that are compatible with Apple’s Find My network. These include AirTag and compatible item trackers that use the Find My network. If you think someone is using an AirTag or another item tracker to track your location, you can use the Tracker Detect app’s scan feature to try to find it. If the app detects an AirTag or compatible item tracker near you for at least 10 minutes, you can play a sound to help find it.

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