Working for Apple is surely fun, but if you're not at the highest echelons—and in its legal team, for example—you could find yourself in court pretty often.
The Cupertino giant is once again in a legal pickle, this time—over its AirTag trackers. People are complaining officially about those.
Lawsuits and more lawsuits
The AirTag is super practical, though. | Image by PhoneArena
Per the latest findings, there's a pile of lawsuits that keeps growing by the day and the plaintiffs say Apple's AirTags are to blame for making stalking easier.
Lots of people have filed their cases in California federal courts. They say that Apple's item trackers are not just for tracking items… and argue that the company has released the AirTag in 2021 without strong enough safeguards to protect users.
What's the best AirTag feature?
The real-time location
Per one of the lawsuits, tracker technologies allow stalkers to follow their victims' movements "in real time". They straightforwardly call these technologies "dangerous and frightening".
The plaintiffs also find it problematic ("dangerous") that the AirTag offers a "highly precise location", "ease of use" and "low price". And that's all true. Getting an AirTag is cheap, as these things are often on a discount, especially when bundled. Setting it up and using it is a no-brainer, too.
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Is Apple taking steps to prevent this?
The plaintiffs also accuse Apple of not taking adequate measures against stalkers. Per the report, the company has received "tens of thousands of stalking reports" since releasing the AirTag, but nothing substantial followed.
One of the lawsuits says that Apple "continues to find itself in the position of reacting to the harms its product has unleashed, as opposed to prophylactically preventing those harms”.
What will follow?
Right now, it's too early to tell, as the Apple AirTag legal battle has just begun and the lawsuits are still in their early stages.
If people continue to file such lawsuits, however, they could turn into MLD (multidistrict litigation).
This would allow for the legal process to move quicker and lead to results without too much waiting.
How to detect if an AirTag is traveling with you?
Apple has built protections into iPhone and iPad to warn users if an unknown Bluetooth tracker, such as an AirTag or another Find My-compatible device, appears to be moving with them.
These alerts are designed to prevent people from being secretly tracked without their knowledge. If a notification appears, users can tap it, play a sound on the tracker, or use nearby finding tools to locate it.
Apple recommends checking personal belongings, bags, vehicles or clothing if the tracker can't be immediately found. Users who feel unsafe can also save tracker information and contact authorities if needed.
What about Android trackers?
Similarly, Android includes a similar safety feature that detects unknown Bluetooth trackers traveling with a user and sends an alert with information about the device.
Users can open the notification to see where the tracker was detected, play a sound to locate it and follow instructions to disable it. The feature works with compatible trackers, including Apple AirTags and other devices supported by the Find Hub network.
Android also allows users to manually scan for nearby trackers through the phone's settings.
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Sebastian is one of PhoneArena’s senior opinionators. A veteran news writer with almost 20 years of experience in media and technology, he not only covers all the hot news about Galaxies and iPhones, but often provides hot takes on industry trends. He’s fascinated with camera-focused flagships from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, as well as foldable phones.
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