I spy is a guessing game where one player chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that “I spy with my little eye something beginning with…”, naming the first letter of the object. Other players attempt to guess this object. – Wikipedia.
In the case of Apple’s Air Tag, the ‘something’ began with the letter M…. ‘M’ for Madison. “A family from Tennessee was shocked to discover their 17-year-old daughter’s movements were being tracked around Walt Disney World in Florida by an Apple Air Tag for around four hours”, according to the Daily Mail.
Apple’s Air Tag is a button sized wireless device designed to help forgetful, scatterbrained dolt’s such as myself keep track of misplaced items, like keys, wallets or pet tarantulas.
What could possibly go wrong?
Hundreds of women have posted videos on TikTok to share their stories of how they found mysterious Air Tags attached to their belongings, tracking their location. Creepy? Well, it gets even ickier…
Gear Patrol explains that by way of Apple’s Find My network, which utilizes a network of hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs, Air Tags can be detected by anybody’s Apple Device and communicated through the iCloud to the owner of the missing device. Known also as crowdsource geolocation, YOU could be the 2nd of 3 points in that triangulation; Apple being the third and a Stalker being the FIRST. Congrats, you might be unwittingly aiding and abetting a perverted psychopath.
Apple’s “Anti-Stalker” technology sends a notice when a device detects that Air Tags are moving with you. Problem is, that could take up to 14 hours. I’m of the opinion that any tech requiring an “Anti-Stalker” feature has the potential for misuse that could, shall we say, overshadow it’s intended design. But the best Anti-Stalker technology of them all is Apple themselves. Each and every stalking device Air Tag has its own unique serial number linked to an Apple ID. They can simply reveal the identity of the iPhone the Air Tag is registered to.
So do us all a favor Apple, tell us who’s behind the Disney Stalker Tag. They should do it now, if for nothing else to see if it’s Mark Zuckerberg.
