How to know if you are being tracked by an AirTag

Apple’s coin-sized bluetooth trackers, the AirTags, were designed to help users keep track of their belongings like bags, keys, etc. But as is the possibility with any tech, these trackers have very often been misused to track people without their knowledge, stalk them, and worse.

Recently, an actor realised she was being tracked by an AirTag for about two hours while she was in Disneyland. In another incident, a woman tracked her boyfriend with an AirTag and then murdered him.

AirTags are tiny and essentially inconspicuous, so it is very easy to slip them into bags, cars, pockets, etc, without the person being aware of it. Now, Apple is aware of this issue and has been taking measures to handle these unlawful activities. The company has been working with law enforcement agencies and also issued a statement about this earlier in February this year.

“We have been actively working with law enforcement on all AirTag-related requests we’ve received. Based on our knowledge and on discussions with law enforcement, incidents of AirTag misuse are rare; however, each instance is one too many,” Apple mentioned in a post in February this year.

When a new AirTag is set up on the Find My app, the user is warned with a pop-up that these trackers are not meant to track people. The pop-up also mentions that law enforcement can request information connected to the AirTag’s owner’s Apple ID if it is used for unwanted tracking. However, that is barely a deterrent for those who want to misuse it.

Apple is working on adding new features to the Find My app as well as to the AirTags to make them harder to use for unwanted tracking. But in the meanwhile, here’s how you can detect an AirTag on you or around you, that’s not yours.

If there is an unknown AirTag on you, you will receive an alert from the Find My app once the tracker has been separated from the original owner and has been moving with you for a while. But for this alert to come in, you need to make some changes.

• Go to ‘Settings’.
• Then click on ‘Privacy’ and then on ‘Location Services’ and toggle it on.

You need to have Bluetooth on as well as Notifications on. You can turn on Bluetooth from the Control Panel. For Notifications, go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Notifications’, and then toggle ‘Tracking Notifications’ on.

Post this, if you receive an alert from Find My that mentions that ‘AirTag Found Moving With You’ - tap on it. Within the Find My app you will then see a map with red dashes that will show approximately where the unknown AirTag was detected on you.

You can then “Play Sound” to detect the device, and if you by any chance know the owner of the AirTag you can also “Pause Safety Alerts”.

Now, if you don’t know the owner, or cannot find the AirTag, you can disable it from the Find My app, just follow the onscreen instructions. This will also show you if the owner of this AirTag has been tracking your location or not.

For Android devices, there is an app called Tracker Detect that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. This app looks for Find My compatible trackers that are within the bluetooth range that are not with their owners. If the app detects an unknown AirTag near you for at least 10 mins, you can play a sound to find it.

Also Read: Actor gets tracked by AirTag in Disneyland, shares experience on Twitter

Also Read: Apple might roll out the AirTag 2, but only if the first AirTag does well