Boyfriend tracking girlfriend with AirTag ends predictably

AppleInsider

A 19-year-old woman in Australia says she felt "sick to her stomach" when she discovered she was being tracked with an AirTag by her new boyfriend.

Apple AirTag

Apple's AirTags had a bumpy introduction in Australia, with the local authorities warning of a choking hazard, and one retailer pulling them from sale for the same reason. But now AirTags are commonly available in the country, yet another stalking case has been reported.

According to Channel 7 News, a 19-year-old woman from Melbourne, was alerted to her being tracked, by Apple's anti-stalking measures.

"I got a notification that an AirTag was tracking my location," the anonymous woman said. "I was doing some shopping throughout the day and I continued to get the notifications, but I had no idea where they were coming from."

Feeling "sick to her stomach," the woman reportedly ransacked her car. "It was so frustrating," she said. "I kept looking and looking and I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I thought the only person that had been in or near my car was my boyfriend."

Her boyfriend of six months, also unnamed by Channel 7 News, initially denied tracking her.

"It wasn't until I told him I was going to the police to report it that he finally confessed," she continued. "I felt so violated and I was in a state of shock. It just blew my mind that someone I trusted so much could do something like this."

The boyfriend reportedly said that "he had been hurt in the past and didn't want to risk getting hurt again."

The woman says she "wasn't buying it." She has since ended the relationship.

If someone is alerted that an AirTag is tracking them, they can take certain steps. In this case, It doesn't appear that the woman went to the police, but she could have taken the AirTag to them.

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larryjw

The AirTags are working as designed. I suppose Apple should be more explicit about how to track if your'e being tracked. And same for other similar devices. 

AppleZulu

Let’s remember once again that while Apple wasn’t the first to sell tracker tags, they were the first to include anti-stalking features. 

How long would this young woman otherwise have continued in this relationship before she realized her boyfriend lacks respect for boundaries or indeed for her? Once he misused the tag, she found out quickly enough to do something about it before the problems went truly dark. 

Xed

larryjw said:

The AirTags are working as designed. I suppose Apple should be more explicit about how to track if your'e being tracked. And same for other similar devices. 

How to track if you're being tracked? You mean how to track the person who is tracking you? If so, that'll never happen because it's dangerous for the individual and for Apple legally.

I feel like the device notification and this page detail everything well.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227

Xed

What kind of a dumbass uses an AirTag to track someone with an iPhone. This is a very well known feature.

PS What happened to that guy that claimed Apple will recall these devices because they brought awareness to stalking by added an anti-stalking feature?

FileMakerFeller

Xed said:

What kind of a dumbass uses an AirTag to track someone with an iPhone. This is a very well known feature.

PS What happened to that guy that claimed Apple will recall these devices because they brought awareness to stalking by added an anti-stalking feature?

Might have finally learned the lesson that sometimes it's better to keep quiet.