It’s been over a year and a half since Apple brought to market a tiny tracker called AirTags, which has been repeatedly abused by stalkers as a way to monitor their targets. This week, Apple quietly announced details of a previous firmware update to AirTags. This allows the user to know if an unknown his AirTag is on your person.
On Wednesday, Apple’s support page Added details Regarding the latest two firmware updates, namely 2.0.24 and 2.0.36. The latter update claims to fix an issue with the AirTags accelerometer not working in “certain scenarios”, but the former update is very interesting. The update enables “precise discovery to find unknown his AirTags that have been detected traveling with you.” Notify the user if his AirTag is on you. It also emits a sound to clarify that the iPhone has been moved.
A paired AirTag should automatically download updates when within a 33-foot Bluetooth range of your iPhone, but this feature only works on iPhone 11, 12, 13, and 14 models. . Also, the iPhone must be running iOS 16.2 or later. These updates are in addition to previous firmware updates that included “adjusting unwanted tracking sounds to make it easier to find an unknown his AirTag.”
Firmware updates were released both last month and this month. McRumorsbut it took the company so far to explain what the update actually did. ultra wideband, which means AirTags in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Indonesia are well equipped to spy on unsuspecting people. And of course, this feature does nothing for Android users who may have an AirTag.To that end, Apple Separate app.
of first update Starting last summer, AirTags beeped if they weren’t near the original user’s phone after 8 to 24 hours, with apparently mixed results.Back in February, Apple announced statement About how they were working to prevent AirTags.”unwanted trackingThe company had already touted “the first-ever proactive system that warns against unwanted tracking,” but users were frustrated with receiving a warning when they borrowed a friend’s key. The giant has promised further updates to help users determine where unwanted AirTags are on them.
Since AirTags was released as a competitor to the Tile tracking device, critics have questioned how well AirTags are exploitable. A Washington Post article in May 2021 first covered his AirTag stalking issue, but things have gotten much worse since then. motherboard reported in April that it had found 50 cases from eight months before a woman reported being tracked with AirTags.Indianapolis police said in June that a woman was using AirTags. Sneak up on her boyfriend and later murder him.
apple is Released update It took us some time to scan AirTags, but none of these new features have truly depleted the risk of technically valid stalking. class action lawsuit Documents filed earlier this month by two women and a stalker victim allege that the company was “careless” in promoting AirTags. One of the women in the suit claimed her iPhone alerted her to her AirTag near her.
What all this shows is that relatively harmless technology like this can have serious unintended consequences, but Apple’s response to the privacy nightmare it created has been slow and piecemeal. It was a target. While the company advertises that it will provide law enforcement with any information regarding tracking, Apple’s strategy is to make the public aware of the technology and responsible for actively tracking it.
