Apple AirTag: Apple had launched its AirTag with the hopes of helping people locate their personal belongings. However, like most things, it began to be misused by fringe elements in the society and before anyone knew it, reports of stalking with the help of AirTags started emerging. Taking cognisance of the issue, Cupertino has said that it is working on improving the AirTag safeguards to be released later this year so that unwanted tracking using the device can be curbed.
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In a statement, the tech giant said that it condemned any malicious use of AirTag, and added that it was working with law enforcement agencies to resolve all AirTag-related requests.
However, another important thing that Apple mentioned was that it was updating its algorithm so that any user was alerted more quickly in case they had an unwanted tracker on their person. Apart from that, users having iPhone 11, 12 and 13 models would also be able to detect the exact location of an AirTag when within range with the help of Precision Finding. This feature had earlier been available only to the owners of the AirTag.
Apple is also going to start simultaneously sending notifications to iPhones when an AirTag makes a sound alert the first time, something that does not currently happen. At the moment, if a user were to miss the AirTag ping, they would not likely have a notification on their iPhone or vice versa. However, with this new measure, Cupertino is hoping to salvage situations where the AirTag speaker might be tampered with, not allowing users to hear the first ping. Louder tones are also going to emphasised by Apple for sound alerts, it said.
Moreover, in the upcoming software updates, users setting up a new AirTag would be shown a message warning against use of the device for unwanted tracking, as it is a crime, adding that the victims would be notified about the tracker upon detection. It would also warn that law enforcement agencies would be able to request identifying information on the owner of an AirTag. Further, the support documents would also be updated by the company to detail the events that might trigger an alert and also sharing what a user should do in case they receive an alert.
Many things are still not known in this regard, like the exact timeline about these features. At the moment, Cupertino has only said that they would be brought in later this year, but considering that it is only about mid-February right now, that leaves quite a lot of room for us to take a guess. Apart from that, the company has also not commented on how much earlier the alert would be sent to the victims, which is a key question since currently, they are alerted of an unknown AirTag sometime between eight to 24 hours of detection.
Nonetheless, the move is commendable on Apple’s part since it has acknowledged the shortcomings of its device and is working on making it better so as to ensure that people are safer.
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