Police records reviewed by Motherboard demonstrate that, (as predicted by security experts when the product) the device's technology is being used as a tool to track and harass women.
Motherboard asked archives that mention the device Air Tag for a period of eight months by dozens of major police departments in the country. He gained access to records from eight police departments. Of the 150 total police reports that mentioned the AirTag device, there were 50 cases of women calling the police because they started receiving alerts from an AirTag that wasn't theirs. Of these, 25 were able to identify a man (former partner, husband, boss) who "planted" the AirTag device in their cars to follow and harass them.
These women reported that current and former close partners use the AirTag device to monitor them.
Many of the women who filed these complaints reported that they feared physical violence.
A woman called the police because a man against whom she had taken precautionary measures was harassing her with phone calls. She could get notifications from the AirTag that was watching her, but she could not find it.
When the cops came, he answered one of the calls in front of the police officer and the man was describing what harm he would do to them.
Another woman found an AirTag in her car after a search, because she wondered how a man against whom she had taken precautionary measures could know exactly where she was.
Motherboard reports that the vast majority of reports came from women. Only one case out of 150 involved a man suspected of being watched by an ex-girlfriend with an AirTag.
