Before the incidents of using AirTag for malicious purposes, Apple has updated many new policies and features , reaffirming that AirTag is ‘designed to locate things, not to track others’.
Apple said it “worked closely with judicial authorities when asked to handle cases involving the use of AirTag” to commit unauthorized acts. The company asserts that cases of malicious use of AirTag are “very rare”, but these cases always receive great attention from the public.
Furthermore, each AirTag has a unique identifier number and is paired with an Apple account. Upon receiving a valid request from the competent authority, Apple will provide the device’s owner information.
Not stopping there, Apple has worked with many safety groups and law enforcement agencies to come up with a common answer in improving the policies of AirTag and the Find My system to prevent malicious acts. break the law. Since then, 5 new privacy policies have been announced by Apple, which can be summarized as follows:
User Alerts at Setup: As of the next software update, as soon as the AirTag is paired, the user will be notified that the device’s intended use is for locating belongings, not being tracked. anyone else and the data can be made available to law enforcement if assistance is required.
Improved alerting clarity: If an unknown pair of AirPods Pro or AirTag is detected traveling with the user, an alert will state “Strange AirPods Pro detected moving with you” or “Already detected.” found strange AirTag moving with you” instead of “Stranged accessory detected moving with you”.
Support for locating strange AirTags: Find My application and some strange AirTag detection applications will be supported to locate strange AirTags in upcoming updates. Currently, this feature is only supported on the Find My application to accurately locate the AirTag associated with the Apple account.
a sound if away from the owner for a long time: The AirTag will make a sound after leaving the owner at a random time between 8 and 24 hours.
Improved tracking alert logic: Continued improvements to the unwanted tracking alert system to “notify users earlier when an unknown AirTag accessory may be active nearby”.