DEA Quietly Turned Apple’s AirTag into a Surveillance Tool(forbes.com)
forbes.com
DEA Quietly Turned Apple’s AirTag into a Surveillance Tool
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/03/23/apple-airtag-becomes-dea-surveillance-device/
8 comments
It’s not clear from the article what makes individual trackers a “surveillance network” and how this is unique from any other commercially available location tracker.
Apple products communicate with each other even if they don't know each other, so an airtag will utilize the cellular of a nearby iphone in order to get information to apple's servers. I think google has a tracker that does something similar.
Its easy to imagine that previous generation tracking devices that sends its information across a broader range than an airtag will need to be larger battery thus being larger.
Its easy to imagine that previous generation tracking devices that sends its information across a broader range than an airtag will need to be larger battery thus being larger.
FYI this can be disabled
Settings > your name (at the top) > find my > find my iPhone > find my network
Disable this to opt out
Settings > your name (at the top) > find my > find my iPhone > find my network
Disable this to opt out
Probably because it utilizes Apple network and maybe iPhones are the devices mostly used by drug dealers?
$1m question: Does the DEA have a special arrangement with Apple to disable the "an AirTag is following you" feature?
With an AirTag on stolen goods where the local is known, local cops won't lift a finger to retrieve said items.
Does Tile snitch on owners to thieves that a tag is following them too?
With an AirTag on stolen goods where the local is known, local cops won't lift a finger to retrieve said items.
Does Tile snitch on owners to thieves that a tag is following them too?
My son put an AirTag in his car which is being shipped across country. Fun to see where it is each day.
So was this disabled for the DEA sting? Because it becomes super obvious when an unknown AirTag is travelling with you.
My kid just got back from a group trip and she carried one in her luggage. The entire bus full of kids kept complaining about the stalker alerts...for the entire week.