AirTag anti-stalking class-action lawsuit given the green light
An attempted class-action lawsuit against Apple is being allowed to proceed, after plaintiffs convinced a judge that there are negligence issues surrounding the AirTags tracker.

AirTag on a keyring.
Initially filed in December 2022 and amended in October 2023 following an "explosion of reporting," the lawsuit from dozens of people in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has become a problem for Apple.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that some of the claims in the lawsuit were sufficiently argued enough to proceed. Accusations of negligence and product liability made it through, reports Bloomberg, but other claims were dismissed by the judge.
Three claims remain in the lawsuit, which alleges that the plaintiffs suffered because of "substantial" issues with AirTag's safety features, which came to light when they were stalked. By not sufficiently implementing safeguards, AirTag "became the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers," the complaint states, despite Apple's attempts to improve them post-launch.
Apple's remedies, including notifying people who may be being tracked and beeping when separated from the user for a prolonged period of time, are deemed to be "woefully inadequate" in the complaint. Furthermore, there was an apparent "gross imbalance" between the protections that Apple device users received and those of Android users.
Apple, meanwhile, argued to the court that it had included "industry-first" safety measures as part of the AirTag's design. Apple also insisted that it should not be held responsible for instances where AirTag could be misused.
In his ruling, Judge Chhabria said that, while Apple may well be in the clear as California law didn't require the company to do more to reduce the ability of stalkers to use AirTag, "that determination cannot be made at this early stage."
Most of the claims were "inadequately pled," the judge wrote, but the claims of negligence and product liability did manage to survive. "It's a close question," the judge remarked.
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Comments
It's a shame it's taking so long for Apple to integrate the cross-platform protection from unwanted-trackers that Google has had ready now for months, waiting on Apple as they promised. And based on this lawsuit, that's a good thing Google has held off.
I expect Apple to sit on it until iOS 18 rolls out this fall.
Whereas no one has said boo about Tiles which didn't initially include any anti-stalking features for years?
ATs have anti-stalking features which is more than competitors could and can say.
I dare say Apple anti stalking features are woefully inadequate.
(2) disable the speaker, disable the tracking. A simple change apple could easily implement.
And many other things Apple could do to limit stalking, but choose not to.
This was never an issue with TILE. No one complained with all the tracking they did and zero protections at all for YEARS. Since it's Apple, lawsuit time once again. Airtags aren't even all that good with tracking. GPS trackers on the other hand, great for tracking anyone you want. Been around a long time now. Where are the lawsuits?
This lawsuit should be thrown out. If someone is using an Airtag to stalk you, that is on the stalker.
Only a month after release, AirTags were updated to begin chirping 8 to 24 hours after being separated from their owners, as opposed to the original three-day window. They have continued to update and refine their anti-stalking features since then. Again, Tile launched its tracking device in 2013, eight years before Apple, and for that entire time did absolutely nothing to address (or even acknowledge) potential misuse of their devices for stalking people.
Apple came out of the gate openly addressing the issue, and has continued to refine those features since. They also have not followed tile in giving users the option of turning off anti-stalking features if they just promise not to misuse them. So this is another example of singling out Apple for (in some people's myopic judgement) not doing enough, when others did nothing, and are now, in effect, doing less than nothing.