Apple wants to expand the protection against unwanted surveillance by AirTags. Recently, more and more cases of misuse of the small trackers have become known
Apple has announced that it wants to improve protection against unwanted surveillance by AirTags. Together with Apple devices, these small tags form a Find My network. Items equipped with it, from your pocket to a bunch of keys, can be searched for and found over the network.
However, AirTags can also be misused for surveillance if they are secretly planted on people. To protect against possible tracking, iPhone users will receive a warning on the display if they carry someone else’s AirTag around with them permanently. In addition, AirTags emit an alarm tone after 24 hours at the latest if they are permanently near a person who does not have an iPhone with them.
In addition, the AirTag setup will also include a warning that tracking people without their consent is a criminal offense in many regions of the world.
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Better warnings, louder alarms
In addition, the warnings should be improved: There are reports from users that security messages were issued because of AirPods in the vicinity, but not when AirTags were in the area.
In addition, Apple says it is considering further refining the localization of AirTags, further improving the logic of the iPhone warnings because of AirTags, connecting the iPhone warnings to the playing of an alarm tone on the AirTag and its more precise localization, and changing the alarm tone and make it louder.