AirTag hidden in luggage forces tourists to change vacation plans
Australian travelers made major changes to their trip to Bali after discovering someone had placed an AirTag into their luggage.
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AirTag on a bag.
Emily Sinclair had paid a visit to Bali with her partner Jane for a vacation. Plans for the trip changed dramatically after Emily found an AirTag had been slipped into a bag.
"It gave us quite a fright," said Sinclair.
The AirTag was discovered after a "strange noise" was heard from one of the bags.
"We took the battery out straight away and dismantled it and saw that the device was made in Indonesia, so we believe it was put into Jane's bag at the airport on arrival," reports 7News.
"We are both very seasoned and careful travelers and have never had anything like this happen before," she continued. "Our bags never left our backs, and the main compartment of the bags were locked. The device was found in a front pocket of Jane's backpack that isn't able to be locked."
The discovery of the tracker spooked the couple. After feeling "really unsafe" about being in a small village called Amed with the concern that someone could be looking for them, they made a big change to their trip.
Despite having eight nights of accommodation left in the village, they took a taxi to the more populated Kuta three hours away.
Ultimately, the event was too much to enjoy the rest of the trip. The couple paid to change flights and flew home earlier.
"We had no idea why or how it got into Jane's bag, but we felt that if somebody had gone to the trouble to put it there, they were intending to use it," Emily added. "So it really frightened us, and we just wanted to get home as soon as possible."
Apple has incorporated a number of anti-stalking features into its AirTag, including emitting a periodic beep if it's separated from its owner for a period of time. This was the sound the couple heard on their trip.
An AirTag seemingly traveling along with someone who isn't the owner can also trigger an alert on an iPhone. The couple admits they didn't own any Apple products, so they wouldn't have seen it.
Despite the protective measures, AirTag has featured in a number of stories where someone attempted to track someone or something else. It has repeatedly been used in stalking attempts, which has led to arrests on the discovery of the tag.
It has also been used to track vehicles, including an owner's car that was taken by thieves in North Carolina, and in New York, to seemingly monitor a patrolling NYPD police car.
AirTag prices start at $29, with Amazon running a sale right now on the 4-pack.
Read on AppleInsider
AirTag on a bag.
Emily Sinclair had paid a visit to Bali with her partner Jane for a vacation. Plans for the trip changed dramatically after Emily found an AirTag had been slipped into a bag.
"It gave us quite a fright," said Sinclair.
The AirTag was discovered after a "strange noise" was heard from one of the bags.
"We took the battery out straight away and dismantled it and saw that the device was made in Indonesia, so we believe it was put into Jane's bag at the airport on arrival," reports 7News.
"We are both very seasoned and careful travelers and have never had anything like this happen before," she continued. "Our bags never left our backs, and the main compartment of the bags were locked. The device was found in a front pocket of Jane's backpack that isn't able to be locked."
The discovery of the tracker spooked the couple. After feeling "really unsafe" about being in a small village called Amed with the concern that someone could be looking for them, they made a big change to their trip.
Despite having eight nights of accommodation left in the village, they took a taxi to the more populated Kuta three hours away.
Ultimately, the event was too much to enjoy the rest of the trip. The couple paid to change flights and flew home earlier.
"We had no idea why or how it got into Jane's bag, but we felt that if somebody had gone to the trouble to put it there, they were intending to use it," Emily added. "So it really frightened us, and we just wanted to get home as soon as possible."
Apple has incorporated a number of anti-stalking features into its AirTag, including emitting a periodic beep if it's separated from its owner for a period of time. This was the sound the couple heard on their trip.
An AirTag seemingly traveling along with someone who isn't the owner can also trigger an alert on an iPhone. The couple admits they didn't own any Apple products, so they wouldn't have seen it.
Despite the protective measures, AirTag has featured in a number of stories where someone attempted to track someone or something else. It has repeatedly been used in stalking attempts, which has led to arrests on the discovery of the tag.
It has also been used to track vehicles, including an owner's car that was taken by thieves in North Carolina, and in New York, to seemingly monitor a patrolling NYPD police car.
AirTag prices start at $29, with Amazon running a sale right now on the 4-pack.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
That is not how the anti-stalking feature works. It will make a sound if it's traveling with you but not with the owner's Apple device.
Also instead of throwing out the tracker, consider attaching it to a benign moving object, so that a stalker will be confused and drawn away from you e.g. put it in an envelope and post it to the police, put it in a public waste receptacle, leave it on a bus, etc - just don't put it on another person. You don't want the stalker to have any certainty over your whereabouts.
2) Every pic of the AirTag that I found shows "Assembled in China" on the back cover, but under that cover the CR 2032 batteries all seem to say "Made in Indonesia." Since the women took the AirTag apart to disable it don't think it's possible that they saw Indonesia on the battery, even if their logic of why it would say that is incorrect?
Here's iFixit's teardown of the AirTag showing the battery.
They should reach out to Apple to find out who it belongs to and open a Police report.
The Airtag could have reacted to somebody they were travelling with - somebody in a neighbouring room perhaps.
And everything Xed said.
These are Australian Social media idiots looking for some publicity.
No apple AirPods are made in Indonesia , Apple should sue these morons
(the user manuals for Apple products are as long as they used to be for MS Office applications….)