Pennsylvania could target AirTag abuse if a newly proposed law passes

The saga with the AirTags and the concerns of them being used for stalking continues, and now, 9to5Mac reports that Pennsylvania might as well target AirTag abuse specifically with a new proposed law.

Pennsylvania might become the first state to specifically prohibit AirTag abuse

One might assume that existing law in the US makes the act of stalking with an AirTag a punishable offense, and this is, indeed, true. Curiously enough, one lawmaker believes that even more can be done to prevent such malicious acts using Apple's item trackers.

Pennsylvania State Representative John Galloway has now proposed new legislation that specifically prohibits an AirTag from being used for anything other than locating your personal belongings.

Galloway states that Pennsylvania's Crimes Code needs to be updated to prohibit remote stalking. His concerns come after seeing multiple articles reporting about incidents where stalkers have placed the tiny item tracker by Apple in victims' cars, purses, and coats, in order to track their location.


Now, Pennsylvania's congress is sharing the legislation proposal and looking for co-sponsors. In the case where state legislators vote to pass the new law, Pennsylvania would become the first state to target specifically AirTag abuse. Hopefully, this could ease some people's concerns about the AirTags being misused to track them or steal their stuff.

The AirTag saga: what is actually going on?

It is possible some of you may be wondering what's this fuss about the AirTag that has been going on in these recent couple of months. The thing is, there have been multiple reports about people locating unknown AirTags following them, hidden mostly in their cars (probably from car thieves or stalkers), and this has raised some concerns about people abusing AirTag's tracking capabilities.

It is important to mention that Apple has specifically designed the AirTags to prevent stalking attempts and the item tracker will play a sound if it's been separated from its paired iPhone over some time. Additionally, the victim's iPhone will display a notification identifying the unknown AirTag in their surroundings and helping the victim locate it.

For Android users, Apple has also released an app that could find if unknown AirTags are present somewhere in their belongings. The thing is, sometimes the AirTag's notification isn't as quick as one might want: for example, one model says she was tracked for hours before her iPhone alerted her.

But the majority of cases reported were situations in which the AirTag actually prevented something bad from happening. In a case that we recently reported about, a sell and steal crime was prevented by an AirTag, pretty much interfering with thieves' plans to sell a stolen car and then steal it again from the person who bought it (without knowing it was stolen at all).

Additionally, there was a case where an AirTag helped track a lying mover. The mover was supposed to help move an Army family to their new post, and thanks to an AirTag situated with their belongings, the family was able to know he was lying.

Recently, Apple also published a Personal Safety User Guide for people who were concerned for their digital and personal safety. The guide details a lot of cases where one might be concerned (it's not only about AirTags) and lists ways that can help users feel more secure.