Apple sued over AirTag tracker

On Monday, December 5, two women filed a lawsuit to Apple Corporation in the District Court for the Northern District of California. They accuse the company that the “smart” AirTag it produces can be used by intrusive stalkers.

The lawsuit states that one of the victims moved after breaking up with a former partner to avoid harassment from his side, but he installed an AirTag in the woman’s car. In the second case, a man put a tracker in his child’s backpack to track the location of his ex-wife. In addition, situations are reported where former partners ended up killing women who were followed with such marks. Apple is being accused of releasing an unsafe device and is seeking compensation from the company.

Apple introduced AirTag last year, a tracker for finding things. Human rights activists, referring to police reports, have previously stated that such devices can be used to track victims by criminals. Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit. Earlier, the corporation reported that AirTag provides protection against unwanted tracking: if an unidentified tag starts moving with a person, a notification will be sent to his Apple gadget. After complaints, the company also released an application for tracking such tags around itself for users of gadgets on Android.

However, the plaintiffs consider the measures taken by the company insufficient: “Despite the fact that Apple has built such protection features into AirTag, they are depressingly insufficient and can do little to quickly warn people that they are being followed,” the plaintiffs say.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya